career development: the new game of snakes and ladders? letg annual conference professor stephen...
TRANSCRIPT
Career development:the new game of snakes and ladders?
LETG Annual Conference
Professor Stephen MaysonDirector, Legal Services Policy Institute
Time to revisit some home truths
• Career development a good thing: ‘sink or swim’ consigned to history?
• Career development is surrounded by some context that affects its dynamics• even those on the ownership track (ladders)
subject to some slippery moments (snakes) not of their making or under their control
Some home truths
• Ownership currently restricted to qualified lawyers …
• … but more qualified lawyers than an ‘efficient market’ needs
• More ownership expectations than firms have room to accommodate …
• … as focus on PEP reduces ownership openings• The Legal Services Act holds prospect of
different types of contribution, productivity and ownership
An over-supply of lawyers and the shortage of talent
• An apparent paradox• No doubt about over-supply in the market• But not enough ‘good lawyers’, or ‘outstanding
partnership material’ • Partly an issue of fragmentation (ie the distribution of talent) …
• … and partly an issue of career development (ie the meaning of talent)
Law firms and their clients
• Have different views about fee-earner performance and value• need business understanding and application
• qualified lawyers not always required
• dissatisfaction with the chargeable hour and time-based billing
• need more efficiency and project management
• Need to (re)define what we mean by a ‘good lawyer’
New colleagues and new investors?
• Reality and implications of LSA 2007• Received wisdom:
• clients don’t want MDPs• law firms don’t want or need ‘external’ investment
• But clients are more open-minded …• … and banks are lending less, tightening up
and questioning more• constrained debt capacity• investment imperatives are changing• internal equity and external debt might not be
sufficient
Work-life balance
• Can we reconcile law satisfaction and economic reality?• issues of burn-out, stress, dependencies, client
perception, etc
• exacerbated by ‘Gen Y’ expectations?
• In boom times, client demand prevails; in slow times, economic reality prevails
• Can therefore be reconciled only on the basis of lower average rewards?
So, what sort of ‘career development’ does the new world need?
• To develop ‘good lawyers’• To develop the best or the lucky into ‘good owners’• To develop the not-so-good or the not-so-lucky into
continuing, valuable employees (or to create a valuable exit for them)
• To develop people (whether lawyers or not, and whether in client-facing or internal roles) who are capable of working with clients and alongside each other in an environment that might or might not represent a partnership structure or culture, and might be owned wholly, partly or not at all by lawyers
So, what sort of ‘career development’ does the new world need?
• A ‘good lawyer’• talent and competence in technical law, business
understanding, case management, clients and referrer relationships, and delivering client value
• A ‘good owner’• talent and competence in leadership, business
management, client and referrer relationship management, and talent development
• Not rocket science: but need to make the ladders a reality, rather than succumb to the snakes of lip service or abandoned, half-hearted implementation
Legal Services Policy Institute
The College of LawGavrelle House2 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8HQ
www.college-of-law.co.uk/about-the-college/legal-services-policy-institute.html