Law Firm Talent Management Doesn't Stop with Recruiting

Admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:57:09 GMT

Without question, gaining an understanding of the characteristics of successful lawyers within individual firms can help firms to make wiser recruiting investments. The “Moneyball” project worked on by Kerma Partners and Lexis Nexis’ Redwood Think Tank focused on the characteristics of lawyers before they entered the law firm studied. Valuable information for the firm to have? Certainly, if thoughtfully incorporated into a recruiting strategy.

However, recruiting the best candidates for success within a firm’s culture is only part of the story. What’s the strategy to develop these associates after they are hired? The most qualified new lawyer can be mismanaged (or unmanaged), whittling away at the likelihood of success. The good news is that regardless of the candidate’s development before being hired, his/her development is largely within the control of the firm.

While the recent spotlight on analytics around recruiting efforts is very positive momentum, a firm really should not focus on a recruiting strategy without building a complementary development strategy. Over the past year, the Think Tank has been studying what differentiates successful lawyers once they begin their careers. In the handful of firms we’ve looked at, we have seen a (varying) correlation to success for attributes such as the type of exposure an associate receives, the clients they work with, and the volume of work they perform. Look for an article summarizing these results in the near future. As with the Moneyball conclusions, it will be important for firm managers to view information about the success of their own lawyers in the context of their own firm’s culture.

I welcome feedback and ideas for attributes to test as we continue to apply real analytics to the issues surrounding talent management in law firms.

-Kris Satkunas

Make More Rain : hr, law firm managment

Law Firm Talent Management Doesn't Stop with Recruiting