How To Measure Partner Performance With 15 Metrics

Let’s look at how to measure partner performance in a human, subjective way with 15 metrics. Typically, data and analytics contribute to how to measure partner performance, but this blog post looks at a subjective perspective, mostly with an emotional quotient. Taken as a whole, a ranking profile of partner performance can be assessed and documented in a robust enterprise legal management platform that tracks how law firm partners engage with in-house legal teams.

In this case, the adjudicator can be an in-house attorney, general counsel or chief legal officer in a corporate legal department. Assessing how to measure partner performance comes with time during relationship building.

How to Measure Partner Performance

The metrics below may not apply to a long-term partner and in-house lawyer relationship. The list below provides considerable measurement opportunities for new partners and associates who work with their in-house clients.

Below is a list of 15 metrics to measure partner performance and determine a non-analytical perspective of whether the law firm is delivering high-quality client services.

• Trust – Building trust is the first metric in an enduring relationship between a partner and his or her in-house client. No firm can represent a company without trust between the two parties
• Loyalty – When the going gets tough, who throws in the towel? Staying loyal to a relationship through thick and thin is how trust and gratitude are developed.
• Quality Service – How is service delivered? Parties in relationships recognize the difference between high-quality services and poor quality. Unfortunately, there could be a three-strikes-and-you’re-out mentality by the legal team, which suggests that the law firm needs to pay close attention.
• Accountability – Is the law firm's practice area accountable if a mistake is made during the representation of a client matter? Who at the law firm is accountable to clean up in aisle five should the need arise?
• Dependability – Some of these metrics may seem similar, but dependability and accountability are different. During a chaotic matter, is the law firm present and accounted for? Is someone from the outside counsel legal team dependable, so the in-house lawyers know they are in good hands? Being accountable for errors isn’t necessarily equivalent to being dependable.
• Competitive – Is the litigation team competitive? Will they pull out the stops to win? There are varying degrees of competitiveness from cut-throat to mild-mannered; however, a good lawyer will determine which level shows up for the respective situation.
• Knowledge – Being knowledgeable in the moment helps earn trust from a client. Ensuring that the knowledge carries through from one issue to another is a sign of dependability.
• Curiosity – Think of a time when the legal department hired a new law firm. Were you able to identify those who were curious and driven by learning the company’s business? While we don’t know why curiosity killed the cat, we do know the value of being curious.
• Expertise – Different from knowledge, expertise is earned over time and representation on complex matters, litigation wins, management, leadership, subject matter specialty, and more.
• Leadership -- Leadership shines through in every relationship between the law firm and the in-house legal team. How do leaders manage through complicated situations? Do they take charge and command attention from others, and, most of all, are they trustworthy in all situations and not just to a client’s face?
• Value – The in-house legal team consistently seeks ways to add value to the enterprise. The way to do that is to receive value from law firm representation. Value, being non-measurable, is truly subjective. A lawyer on the in-house legal team or a connected legal operations professional would identify how to measure value against performance.
• Helpfulness – No one ever said that being helpful was not a high-quality trait of excellent client service. In this case, helpfulness as a law firm partner or associate goes a long way in how to measure partner performance.
• Availability – Are your law firm partners available to you during non-office hours, weekends or holidays if there is an emergent issue? Were you given a personal mobile number in the event you needed to contact your partner? Being available and accessible are two important values that add to measuring partner performance.
• Proactivity – Onboarding a new partner or associate requires time. How proactive do you find your new team to be? Are they ahead of the curve or behind the eight ball? If you’re consistently leading a new team instead of them taking charge, the proactivity performance metric is a negative.
• Responsiveness – Responding in the moment when an issue is evolving is a measure of caring and responsiveness. Another way to measure responsiveness is whether a law firm partner actually responds! How many emails, calls or text messages go unanswered? During a crisis moment, responsiveness is a critical factor.

Tying Partner Performance Together

We can continue on to address subjective metrics for assessing value in partner performance. The list above provides a solid starting point to consider where your law firm partner sits on the measurement scale and emotional and values quotients. Often, hiring professional services consultants can help with a program to measure partner performance with metrics like these or other evaluation tools. Contact us to learn more.