Do you want to hear some scary facts? In 2014, 500 million Yahoo users were compromised. In 2016, 57 million Uber customer accounts and profiles were breached, and in 2017, 143 million social security numbers were stolen from Equifax. Breaches to this scale may not happen every day, but smaller ones do. And as the prevalence of cyber threats grow, smaller companies are now being targeted at a much higher rate.
Between January 2015 and December 2016, there was an approximate 2,370% increase in identified exposed losses. Email scans were reported in all 50 states and from 2013-2016, the Internet Crime Complaint Center reported exposed losses of more than $2 billion. As privacy concerns continue to grow, governments are now instituting laws that require companies to report every incident of hacking and data breach.
Let’s take a look at the threats your firm faces, the obligations you have with your clients when you communicate through text, and how to protect yourself while you communicate in today’s day and age.
Threats Firms Face
According to a Legal Technology Survey Report that the American Bar Association released in 2016, more than one-quarter of firms with more than 500 lawyers admitted they experienced some type of breach. Approximately 40% of those firms reported significant resulting business downtime and loss of billable hours. 25% recounted hefty fees to correct the problems and one in six reported loss of important files and information.
So why are firms being targeted? Lawyer’s handle very sensitive information for their clients, intellectual property, financial information, and legal strategies, all of which are incredibly valuable for malicious third parties.
As this continues to become a problem, rules that govern the legal industry are changing. Let’s dig deeper.
Types of Threats
What are some of the challenges that law firms face?
Ransomware: It is exactly what it sounds like. An attacker will infect a computer or network with malicious software that encrypts data and hold it for ransom. The files held by the attacker cannot be destroyed without a mathematical key that only the attacker has. In these cases, it is a heft financial payment is made in exchange for the information. And this goes without saying, but if you do not have access to your work or matter files, you can’t function as a firm. The average cost of a ransomware attack on a business is $133,000. The cost of ransomware attacks surpassed $7.5 billion in 2019, according to Emsisoft.
Phishing: The second threat is called phishing. This attack is classified by hackers contacting an attorney via phone or email and posing as specific individuals to trick them into sharing confidential or sensitive information. In some cases, attorney's will even be convinced to give out unauthorized access to networks.
Malware: Malicious 3rd party software that is installed to gain unauthorized access to or otherwise damage a network. This malware is installed via a hacked wifi connection, a hard drive, or a link in an email that is opened. This type of attack results in a heavy financial burden to restore or repair the network.
Unfortunately, even with the advancements in firewalls and encryptions that we see today, people are the largest weakness in a firm’s security network. Whether it’s due to failure to follow protocols or insufficient training, social engineering hacking is on a rise.
Communicating With Your Clients
Texting
The rise of texting is undisputed. It is our primary means of communication. 81% of Americans are sending and receiving texts, with 27 trillion texts being sent every year. According to Nielsen, on average, Americans text twice as much as they call and for Americans under the age of 50, sending and receiving text messages is the most prevalent form of communication. The need and ability to send and receive communication instantly is a primary reason for the rise of this communication method. I'm sure you're familiar with this; people want what they want and they want it now, no questions asked. Today, if it takes longer than thirty minutes to respond to a text (and even that’s generous!), some eyebrows will inevitably be raised. As this trend has evolved, advanced, and continued its way throughout the 21st century, the legal field has slowly started to capitalize on the advantages of the fast and easy communication style too.
There are three compelling reasons why lawyers turn to texting their clients as a dominant means of communication.
Ease: Most clients are already texting, so they don’t have to go to their email, sift through a list of ads, open the message, read it and then respond and they don’t have to listen to missed voicemails. Texting makes it easy for lawyers to communicate with their clients and for clients to provide their legal team with the information they need quickly. Today, technology is so advanced that there is software that will even allow you to bill for the time texting, whether it’s inbound or outbound.
Efficiency: It doesn’t matter where the client or attorney is, a text message can be sent instantly and from anywhere. This not only increases communication with your clients, but it also allows you to bill for more time. Not to mention a huge benefit to texting is the conversation trail it leaves behind. Unless purposefully deleted, a client-attorney conversation can be saved forever.
Effective: It is in real-time, you can scroll back up through past messages and you have a frame of reference for where you last left off.
And if all of that isn’t enough to compel you, how about the fact that 78% of people wish they could have a text conversation with a business. You don’t have to be good at math to know that’s a lot of people.
Of course, with all this being said, there are downsides to communicating in this modern and rapid way; those being ethical obligations, confidentiality concerns, over accessibility, record preservation, and simplicity. As the legal field continues to evolve, and texting becomes more and more commonplace, there is a framework of rules that all lawyers should abide by as they continue to utilize this form of communication. Doing so, will not only enhance your customer experience but will also protect everyone from malicious third-party threats.
Framework for Communicating Via Text
Duty of Competence
As a lawyer, you have a duty of competence that you must provide to your clients. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.
Duty of Confidentiality
Back in the 90s, when email came onto the scene, the ABA said that lawyers had a reasonable expectation of privacy in communications made by all forms of email, but they also included that the encryption of emails sent over the internet was unnecessary, despite some risk of interception and disclosure. So twenty-some years ago, you didn’t have to worry about protecting your communications. But in 2020, with the rise of breaches and personal information being exposed, the ABA adjusted its statement to include that a lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of, or unauthorized access to, information relating to the representation of a client. Today, it is a lawyer’s duty to keep abreast of the knowledge and changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology. Now, all lawyers are required to act competently to safeguard information relating to the representation of a client against unauthorized access by third parties and inadvertent disclosure of information.
Protecting Your Client’s Communications
The first thing every law firm and lawyer must be able to do is to understand the nature of the threat. Being able to identify what kind of threat is being imposed will help you determine how you should communicate with your staff about combating it.
Not only should you be able to understand the potential threats, but you should also have an understanding of how your confidential information is being stored and transmitted. How does your firm store information? Are you cloud-based or on a physical hard drive?
Next, you must know how to use reasonable security measures to protect what you’re communicating with your clients. This means you also need to determine how your electronic communications and client matter is being protected. It goes further than your IT department making a unilateral decision, it’s your responsibility to make the decision to protect your clients.
Lastly, firms must train their lawyers and staff in technology and information security and conduct due diligence on vendors providing communication technology. This includes how vendors process and handle your data, whether or not it complies with your ethical obligation, vendor conflict check, and understanding how they do business. Additionally, it is important to note whether or not these vendors are storing your information overseas, what jurisdiction they have over that data, and in the event of a breach, what are the steps to mitigate or resolve the hack?
Reasonable Efforts Standards
The factors to be considered in determining the reasonableness of lawyers efforts include:
The sensitivity of information- Are you discussing meeting dates and times or attorney-client privilege information? If the latter, that needs to be protected.
The likelihood of disclosure if additional safeguards are not used- This means the potential threat of your network or data being breached. Based on the data, the threat is much higher now than it was in the 90s.
The cost of employing the additional safeguards- How expensive is it to put in the systems to protect your communications and data.
The difficulty of implementing the safeguards.
The extent to which the safeguards adversely affect your clients- Are your clients able to navigate the additional safety measures? Do they hinder your bi-directional communication?
As you move forward and continue to grow your firm and expand your client list, it is best practice to speak with your clients and discuss their expectations for communication. What suits them best? Are they comfortable with communicating back and forth via text and are they aware of the security risks and threats in today’s day and age?
Is Texting Ethical?
Simple answer, yes. You may send texts to and receive texts from clients. There are no statutes prohibiting this, however, there are regulations around data security and confidentiality as mentioned above.
If you’re trying to solicit new clients via text there are some standards you must follow. For example, the first line of your text must say that what you’re sending is an advertisement. You must track who received the texts and what content they are specifically receiving. You must ensure that the prospective client is not responsible for the data costs by working with cell phone service providers and you must have a method for prospective clients to opt-out.
If all that sounds like a hassle to you, consider this: the average open rate for text message campaigns is 98%, compared to a 20% open rate for email campaigns. SMS response rates are 295% higher than phone call response rates and 75% of people wouldn't mind receiving an SMS text message from a brand if they opt-in for the service. All this data leads to the undeniable fact that texting yields the highest rate of response.
Law Firms at Risk
The information you handle every day is critical, because of this, firms all across the US are at risk. Any firm relying on existing non-secure messaging systems to communicate with clients is putting themselves and their clients’ confidential information at risk.
Steps to Protect Yourself
In today’s world, protecting yourself, your firm, and your clients is critical. Here are some basic measures and steps you can take to protect yourself.
Who doesn’t love a little history refresher? You like it too?! Perfect.
So, fifty-one years ago, the first ARPAnet (later to be known as the internet) was created. Fast forward to 1989 and you have a proposal from a man named Tim Berners-Lee for a program called “Mesh” (also later to be known as the World Wide Web). The advent of both the network infrastructure (the Internet) and the software infrastructure layered on top of it (the Web) paved the way for a growing dichotomy between the centralization and decentralization of resources and knowledge, and one-way versus two-way consumer consumption patterns. Now, fast forward again to 2020 and we see the proliferation of content that simply did not exist even a mere few years ago.
An astounding 59% of the global population is connected to the internet. Do you know what that means? It means that consumers now have access to so much information that the power that brands and corporations once held has completely shifted. The asymmetric balance that sellers held only a few years ago is now virtually non-existent.
We are now living in a digital world. Leading companies know that in order to keep their competitive advantage, they must align with their customers. They don’t view this alignment as a chore on their laundry list of duties that they'll get to eventually, they're actively pursuing it. They are reimaging every aspect of their business and how the consumer experience and journey are affected every step of the way. In 2020, this alignment is the bedrock upon which successful businesses are built on.
Law Profession vs. The Industry
How does any of this news relate to you and your firm? To start, it should be noted that the legal space drags behind other industries. The primary cause of this polarity is a result of a divergence between the profession and the industry as a whole. Put simply, it is the divide between lawyers and the myriad of technology and business management expertise that make up the entire industry. There is a notable difference between the two, where we have the profession, or lawyers, who are shackled to paradigm and resistant to change, matched against the industry that is compelled by the new principles of customer demand.
For a very long time, the profession has clung to structural and economic models, and self-regulation has been a critical part of the formula to remove any and all competition. In the past, firms have been able to minimize the impact of cultural, economic, and sociological trends that have disrupted many industries, but in this new digital age, things have changed. Since the turn of the millennium, we’ve seen a shift between legal practice and the fundamental business behind delivering those services. This shift is due to the fact that law is no longer just about the lawyer. Over the years, we have seen a significant volume of work has drifted from law firms to corporate legal departments. The 2017 Georgetown Report cites, ‘erosion of the traditional law firm franchise,’ a euphemism for ‘clients no longer need large law firms to handle many legal tasks. ’
When you look at how a lawyer becomes a lawyer you will see a few things: risk avoidance, trained perfection, proactiveness, and the delivery of creative solutions. Throughout a lawyer’s education and professional training, critical thinking is reinforced, but the business side of their professional services is not. Because of this, we have seen a rise in legal service providers who aim to provide law firms with more data, process management, technological advancements, training, cybersecurity, the list goes on and on. Their mission is to provide solutions to business problems that will hopefully create efficiencies and stimulate customer engagement and alignment. However, digitally advanced companies have taken to solving these problems on their own. They're redefining their target markets, tracking competition, committing to a capital shift from buyer to seller, and they're monitoring customer satisfaction. Highly informed decision making is now defining the gap between competitive and non-competitive firms.
With today's access to the internet, consumers can now decide for themselves when, where, and at what price point a licensed attorney is required. The law industry is being disrupted and systemic changes and customer-centric models are forcing the balance of power to shift from the firm to the consumer.
Reimagining Legal Delivery
The marketplace of all industries, including legal, is now composed of consumers who expect a customized delivery, one that entails the involvement of project managers, design engineers, data analysts, and the like. When you look at the practice of law, specifically, trained experience, specialized skill, expertise, and judgment, you’ll come to find that it has been intricately woven into the broader picture of the legal service industry. The practice of law, as traditionally defined, is being eclipsed by the business of law and everything else required to deliver legal services. In order to remain dominant in the legal space, firms must differentiate, scale, and align with customers.
The question remains, how do law firms do this? How do law firms differentiate themselves, scale, and align with customers? As we ponder this, it is important to note that operating in a consumer-centric world does not mean the law profession will be eviscerated. The unique characteristics and intricacies of attorney-client relationships are pillars of legal practice that will remain standing for the foreseeable future.
Rethinking Customer Relationships
Consumers-not lawyers- determine what is ‘legal,’ whose skill is required, when it is required, how it is delivered, and at what price point they’re willing to pay. With the internet only a click away, building trust with your customer is paramount. Change won’t happen overnight, but building a strategy around your goals, investing in technology, and viewing your client's journey with your firm as a customized experience, all encompass the steps you should be taking in order to build a successful consumer-centered business. Optimize your firm, be receptive to change, and invest in technology that will not only maximize your client experience but drive your revenue too.
In 2020, law is not only about selling legal knowledge. Practice area expertise must be leveraged by technology in order to provide consumers ‘faster, better, cheaper’ and quantifiable results on a transparent, real-time, and customer-centric basis.
Training is one of the leading factors that creates the largest gap between buying and utilizing technology.
For many people, even the word “training” triggers a whole host of negative feelings from angst, stress, and even dread.
But training doesn’t have to be such a pain point. At its core, the key is to look at technology training as an investment rather than a cost. To foster a mindset that training is a piece of a holistic project versus an unavoidable burden.
Let’s take a look at 5 key questions that can help you get the most out of your tech investment.
1. What are the elements of an effective, successful training program?
Leadership Buy-In
First and foremost, the leaders in a firm need to be the advocates for the training. Partners and firm administrators know exactly what they want to achieve with the software, and that information should always travel from the top down. Overall success can largely be controlled by the expectations that upper management sets early on. Clearly defined goals and objectives will naturally promote a sense of direction and purpose for the training.
Micro-Learning
The hope of any training is that your staff retains what they learn. Studies today show that our retention rate for audio/visual material is about 20% in any given session. And if that training surpasses one hour, we retain less than half of the total information presented. Crazy, right? So, how do we combat this? You guessed it, with micro-learning. The key is to break your training into sessions. Never do everything all at once or you can guarantee that your staff's retention will be less than noteworthy. A common complaint is that training takes time away from completing day-to-day work. With micro-learning, you can not only prevent mind drifting, but also reduce the stress associated with not finishing work or meeting specific deadlines.
Relevance of Information
Break your training out by content and who it specifically pertains to. The best way to maximize engagement is to provide training material that is relevant to the work each person has to produce. Matching training content with staff roles will also encourage specific questions that will allow for deeper discussions on pointed topics within the training. Everyone’s work and expectations of producing that work are all different. Keeping that in mind throughout your training sessions will lead to a happier, more attentive team. Another key to utilizing relevant information in your training is to import your firm's own data into the system prior to the training. You can combat the foreign nature of a new software with the familiarity of known data. When people see information they know, they will not only grasp the concepts you’re teaching faster, but they will naturally be more inclined to learn.
Reinforce
Now that you have gotten through your initial steps of training, you may think the most important part is over, but don’t be fooled! Reinforcing that information is just as crucial to ensuring you are implementing it correctly, avoiding bad habits, and maximizing the potential of your investment! Simple steps like hosting a Q&A session once a week or providing a resource library with videos and guides will go a long way in making sure your team is less reactive if issues appear down the road. Most importantly, make it fun! Training and review sessions don’t have to be as awful as they sound. Bring food, have giveaways, create an atmosphere that makes it easier to learn the new material. If you are constantly reviewing best practices and streamlining your sessions to focus on specific questions, you will see an overall faster adoption time and run into less user error in the future.
The Positive Change chart above shows the emotional cycle of new users and the effect the technology adoption has on their mood as they go through the training process. Reinforcing relevant material will help reduce that drop between Uniformed Optimism and Informed Pessimism.
The Staff Emotional Cycle of Change chart gives a high-level view of the unavoidable stages a team will typically go through in the period of a new technology adoption. The pit between stages one and two can be minimized with effective training.
2. What are a few different types of training and which is the best for law firms?
Instructor-Led and Group Discussion
There are a variety of ways a firm could structure how they train their team. From hand’s on individual coaching, group lecturing, and instructor-led training, the style you choose is entirely up to your discretion. However, for law firms looking to adopt the best practice of a new cloud management system, instructor-led training and group discussion are the two most ideal types of training. Instructor-led is the most beneficial if you’re in a remote environment. If everyone is on Zoom together, it is important to have one leader who can direct the group, answer questions, and have a specific roadmap for that session. This style of training is also great for efficient micro-trainings on specialized material. Group discussion is also a preferred method of training because you will be able to break your team out into a variety of segments based on attendance size, relevant content, and personality of the group. Group discussions tend to boost participant engagement and foster an environment that is better suited for questions and suggestions.
Superuser
Superusers are composed of individuals from different departments within a firm who have the strongest grasp of the new software. The goal of these users is to be prepared and make sure that the objectives of each training session are being met and discussed. These superusers, whether they’re partner’s, firm admin’s, or tech-savvy paralegal’s, need to prioritize discussions around various decisions, procedures, and facilitate the overall configuration of each training. All training decisions will be made by this group of superusers prior to attorneys and other staff members getting involved. Superusers provide a unified voice to the rest of the team and offer immediate support for the staff on go live. Superusers are critical to helping keep the internal environment calm and minimize that emotional dip of informed pessimism.
The Timeline for a Training Roll-Out
Superusers should be involved in the training process from day one all the way up to go live. Typically, attorneys can be up and running with the software after an hour and a half of initial training, however, paralegals, secretaries and firm admins may need more time. Training time largely depends on whether utilization is streamlined or more manual, and how active leadership is in encouraging their staff to view training as more of a benefit than a hindrance.
3. How do I evaluate a trainer?
Successful adoption of a new technology will largely be determined by training. A great trainer is someone who is empathetic, patient, and can adjust their teaching methods to best suit the learning styles in the room. It is important that your trainer is someone who will go through all the ups and downs with you throughout the process. You can ask your technology vendor who will be training you and ask them to come to the office as soon as possible for initial discussions. Don’t be afraid to interview the trainer, make sure their skill set is at a level you need it to be, and make sure they understand the preferences and personalities of the people they are going to train. Some software vendors offer free training, but don’t let the word free deceive you. With free training, you will simply get what you get. You won’t have much control over when the trainer comes in, nor will you have much flexibility to select a different trainer if the one given to you doesn’t meet your needs. Getting the right trainer is half the battle in ensuring you’re getting the most out of your technology investment. If the person isn’t the right fit, it could lead to poor adoption of the material.
4. How do I evaluate the success and effectiveness of a training program?
This question largely depends on how deeply you want to analyze the training. You have to decide whether you’re going to do a general cost-benefit analysis or a long-detailed cost-benefit analysis to determine if the training is meeting your ROIs. Prior to the start of your training, ask yourself what you’re trying to measure. Are you looking for more billable hours? Trying to create an environment more appealing to younger attorneys? Attract new talent? These goals will help measure what you’re looking for. The easiest way to evaluate the training is by getting your staff involved. Create surveys, have pre and post-training assessments, and self-evaluations. Giving your staff a voice will not only decrease inefficiencies but will allow you to change strategies and pivot approaches when need be.
5. Why should I measure the effectiveness of my training program?
There are so many metrics to gauge performance, from marketing reports, KPI’s, and applications with metric dashboards at a glance, a firm can measure their performance on many levels, but what we aren’t measuring is how teams are really doing with their software. Could they be doing better? Are they using the most effective strategies? Are they streamlining the process? Additionally, users are now working remotely, so how can we measure performance in a way we’ve never had to measure it before? All of those answers will point to the areas where you need more training. If you can measure your learning objectives, you will be able to measure your efficiency metrics a little better. Everything is being broken down and analyzed these days and training shouldn’t be an exception. At the end of the day, if you can locate your efficiencies, you can increase your competitive advantage. For example, let's set a goal of increasing your billable hours. What do you do next? Well, you can invest in technology that gives you features like Automated Time Capture (ATC). ATC functions solely to help you bill more hours. But what if you don't know how to use the tool? Looks like you won't be reaching your goal.
If you have the tools but they are never used, you’re not going to gain the efficiency and you might as well not pay to have the tool in the first place.
Training is essential. Proper training that fits your firm's needs is crucial. You will get the most out of your technology investment by embracing training, tailoring it to your firm’s needs, and evaluating its overall effectiveness.
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We want to thank Laura Kennedy, Co-Founder of Circle Management Group, for providing the Positive Change and the Staff Emotional Cycle of Change charts. Laura was also pivotal in conducting the webinar, How To Get the Most Out of Your Tech Investment, hosted alongside Centerbase's own, Rob Joyner, VP of Sales and Marketing. This blog was written based off their discussion on how proper training can make or break the successful adoption of any technology investment.
Laura has over thirty years of specialized technology training and change management experience. Her approach to training has helped thousands of professionals adopt new systems and processes.
For one-third of law firms, a 2019 survey revealed recruitment is among management’s top challenges. There’s no doubt about it: the dip in specialized talents, as well as the pitfalls of education in recent years, are simply not meeting the needs of the modern firm. Certainly, attracting the next generation of legal talent has its fair share of demands, especially when it comes to new needs in technology.
Of course, you’re well aware of that. It’s a matter of what those changes are – and how to implement them smoothly and effectively – that becomes the bigger obstacle. Because not only do you need to hire that talent, you want to retain them to be your future leaders, too.
Here are some tips on how you can incentivize new talent to join your firm:
Align With Their Core Values
Most firms function similarly, so it won’t be day-to-day operations young talent look at when job hunting. Instead, these stars are searching for a place that aligns with their morals and values. These values, indicative of your company’s culture, are going to be your “secret sauce” to distinguish yourself from other firms.
Pinpointing your values originates in two key places: flexible work policies and sustainability efforts.
Flexibility
Millennials and younger generations prefer versatility in their workday. Gone are the days of eight hour workdays sitting in front of a computer pushing paper. The more effective technology available that takes manual, iterative work out of young lawyers’ days, the better. These workers want fulfilling careers that move the needle for clients – so balancing that desire with a flexible work schedule rewarding dedication with remote hours is sure to make your firm more appealing than others out there.
Many law firms are now offering flexible work policies, so if you haven’t yet, consider implementing work from home days as a perk to the job. It goes a long way with this new workforce, and you could get passed up for a firm that does have it.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Championing social and environmental causes outside of your firm is an important aspect the younger workforce holds in high esteem. Keep any notes of causes you support in your job descriptions and recruitment notes, and prospective employees are sure to take interest.
If you aren’t currently making monetary donations, consider a volunteer day at a local soup kitchen or a toy drive during the holidays to help your local communities. Current employees may have ideas on who to reach out to through Facebook groups or other Instagram pages. This is all part of the desire for emerging talent to make a difference bigger than themselves – and what better way to do that than through helping the environment and future generations?
Technological Efficiency
Gone are the days of legacy, on-premise dinosaur computers that aren’t mobile or user friendly. Like many industries, firms are going digital, and new lawyers are going to covet systems that work with their flexibility, not against it. The easier your systems are to learn and use, the more people will use technology to make their jobs better (your accounting department will also thank you when they regularly enter their billable hours and client matter notes).
Of course, nothing happens overnight, so if you are in the market for revamping your system, notify new lawyers about the process during recruitment and add their input is valued in order to bring in the best possible new upgrades to the firm. This new generation loves knowing their feedback is taken into account, and it makes them feel like they’re being part of a positive change.
Career Advancement and Mentorship
Offering non-monetary incentives during recruitment is crucial for young workers. In this Robert Half Legal survey, one in four (25 percent) of lawyers interviewed said that leadership or advancement opportunities are the most attractive incentive. Like most careers, lawyers will need to learn on the job, and learn how things work at your firm specifically. The best way to navigate the twists, turns, and mistakes and turn them into victories for your firm is to have top associates and talent guiding them.
Show your aspiring talent you will prioritize their ongoing growth, and you’ll have loyalty and commitment from them to work hard.
Continuing Education
Not everyone you’ll hire will be lawyers, but they’ll still need to know the requirements of law they’re working within. There’s been an uptick in one-year master’s programs offering Legal Studies, which helps prepare students for the business aspects of dealing with courts and law. This could be a useful incentive for employees.
Of course, take time to assess the needs of your current workforce first, but when you look to other positions, you could offer tuition reimbursement for a certain amount of tenure at your firm. Not only will this help with retention, it will demonstrate your commitment to their ongoing improvement and career excellence.
Competitive Salaries
While money is not the end all be all when it comes to hiring new talent, it certainly can get their attention. As stated in the aforementioned report, a competitive base salary can make a huge difference when looking to recruit top talent. Be sure when recruiting to offer salaries that meet and exceed the job market trends – this will help attract star players who have the potential to enrich your firm’s services.
This isn’t a one time thing, either – as salary trends are constantly changing, it directly affects employees’ feelings of worth about their jobs. When it comes to promotions and market level compensation, if you’re not adjusting based on their performance and worth, there’s a chance they’ll end up going somewhere else that will.
Find Top Talent and Keep Them
In order to survive through the digital age, you’re going to want talent that will drive your business and its clients forward. Since this educational gap doesn’t look to be filled in the near future, it’s up to you to create incentives and help bolster your incoming talent to be the very best.
We hope these tips helped you keep on top of recruiting top talent for your firm, and that you’re ready for the continued digitization of day-to-day processes.
Have questions on digital services for your firm’s matters? We’re here to help. Centerbase works with hundreds of law firms to improve processes and speed up the billing cycle while still keeping true to accuracy. Learn more by subscribing to our blog or contacting us today.
If you’re trying become a partner, this blog is for you. We know you work long and hard hours, but sometimes you’re not always rewarded for it. We have compiled a list of the top 6 reasons your firm will be motivated to promote you to the next level and you need to check them out.
But first, let’s discuss why more attorneys never make it to this senior level.
Attorneys who want to be made partners at large law firms typically quit too soon. Many times, attorneys will quit very close to the finish line within months or even days of becoming a partner. Most people who stick with it have a chance of making it, but most people don’t.
For the most part, the main hurdle to becoming a partner at a major law firm is most often psychological. In general, law firms don’t want to make people partner. If they make people partner, especially in situations where it’s for an equity partnership, it’s going to cost the law firm more money. And when someone is close and gives up before making partner, it gives the existing partners a reason to feel special, it also gives them access to more money.
Generally, law firms will only make you a partner if they have to. However, there are some exceptions to that, such as making contract partners or non-equity partners because law firms can make a lot of money off of non-equity partners.
We know that isn’t necessarily great to hear, but that’s why we have collected all the insights into why firms are actually incentivized to make you a partner, let’s jump in.
6 Reasons Firms Will Make You a Partner
1. You Generate a lot of business
The first reason a law firm will make you partner is if you have a lot of business or if your future projections indicate that you will be bringing in a lot of business.
If you have a lot of business and say you’re bringing in $10 million dollars, the firm may only have to pay you $2 million to make you a partner. They may pay you a little bit more, or they may pay you a little less, but think of all the money you’re generating for the firm. So at the end of the day, that law firm can pay you a fraction of what you’re generating and become very profitable, and generally, they will want to make you partner.
There are very few reasons why a firm wouldn’t want to make someone with millions of dollars worth of business a partner. Or someone who looks like they’re going to have a lot of business in the future. If you’re bringing in small amounts of business, but the business you’re bringing is continually increasing, and you’re on an upward trend, they can see someone who is capable of doing that and you will be rewarded.
2. You have connections to other partners
A second reason a law firm may make you partner is if you’re connected to a powerful partner or a group of powerful partners with a lot of business. If that’s the case, they will most likely make you a partner. It’s very important for associates and counsel to get as close as you can to powerful partners with a lot of business because those are the people who are really supportive of the firm and are driving revenue. So if those partners want you to be a partner and the law firm can do it, they’re going to do it. A lot of times what happens too is if you’re close to a powerful partner and that powerful partner leaves, as a condition of joining the new firm, they may actually demand that they make you partner as well.
3. You have connections to a powerful client
The next reason is if you’re connected to a powerful client or group of clients that give a lot of business to the law firm. The law firm will likely make you partner in this case. A lot of times an associate may be tasked with working with a major client and if that client is very enthusiastic about that person and is giving the firm a lot of money, the firm may highly consider making that person a partner. Getting close to a client and doing really good work for that client are always the smartest things you can do, especially if it is a very large client because they without a doubt can influence your career.
4. Your worth ethic is superior
Hard work is one of the most common reasons people are made partner at a lot of large law firms. If you’re the hardest working, billing the most hours, setting the pace, and making the firm a lot of money, it will be incredibly difficult for the law firm not to make you partner. In many cases, what will happen if they don’t is it will demotivate all the other associates and staff working hard around them. The thing about billing a lot of hours is not just the fact that you’re billing that time, rather it’s that people are giving you the work and the firm isn’t having to write off your hours. It’s the fact that your clients are enthusiastic about your work and they’re willing to continue giving it to you. If you’re always in the office and billing a lot of hours, you’re going to be a good role model for other attorneys. In this case, if they don’t make you partner it is going to make the law firm look bad.
5. Your firm experiences staff changes
The fifth reason a law firm may make you partner is if the firm experienced some type of disruption. This disruption could precipitate from unforeseen departures, firings, or retirements, and the firm needs to move into action to keep people around. If people are made partner under those kinds of conditions, they may have already been considering leaving the firm, so the firm made the move to make them a partner to prevent that. When a law firm suffers from departures or other morale issues, remember that it is temporary. If management or the leaders of the firm don’t correct it, they will be left without any attorneys to promote.
6. You have special skills
Many people will also be made partner because they have some form of expertise or a special skill or other types of connections that the law firm needs. These skills or connections can typically not be found anywhere else. If you have that type of expertise, a firm may want to make you partner. This could be something as such as having a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. For an IP litigator firm, that credential would be incredibly valuable.
Having experience outside of the legal industry can prove to be incredibly valuable. Many times law firms will hire individuals who have unique backgrounds or come from institutions like the government or if you’re well known through your family name or have superior connections within the legal industry. Differentiating yourself is one of the fastest ways to move to the top.
The Takeaway
The important thing to understand is that a firm will not make someone a partner unless they have to. If you’re made a partner, it is because you’re giving more to the firm than the firm can offer you in return. Making partner is a sign of not only your worth but the value your firm places in your role there.
