Sunday, February 11, 2007

The Work Life Balance in Law Firms. Two Sides of the Debate.

Juxtapose these two blog posts by two of my favorite bloggers and lawyers, Dan Hull over at What About Clients, and Nicole Black over at Sui Generis.

How do you serve clients and still not burn out faster than a Grucci fireworks display? I'm a certified baby boomer. I am driven, I love the law, and I sacrificed a lot of family time for success. I am here to say that while I enjoyed pretty much every minute of it, I gave up too much. Fortunately I learned my lesson early, not so much for me but for staff. The issues are bigger than one post but I will deal with two of the issues here. One is how do I become a good lawyer. Two is much do I need to earn to be happy.

Now of course the second issue is troubled by what I consider to be ridiculous debt caused by tuition and education loans. A kid out of law school who had to finance the whole thing has to earn at least Sixty thousand a year plus to be able to afford the tuition repayment, rent, a car, and basic insurance. He can forget about saving for his future. Fortunately he can put that off for a few years.

On the other hand, how much can one expect to earn if they work a regular work week. What is a regular work week for a lawyer? How much of an outside life can a lawyer expect when just for development of skills he needs to put in a lot of time.

Learning the law, does not happen between 9-5 or even 8-6. It is the reading and working done when the phones stop ringing and the partners stop screaming that permits the opportunity for learning to take place.

How does a young lawyer learn. Well CLE is part of the equation, but frankly the advance sheets and the daily bar journal is the first thing to turn to. Now I never trained transactional lawyers so I can only speak for trial lawyers, but reading transcripts of trials and issue spotting the appellate issues is a good tool in learning how to put a question, and on how to object and preserve a record.

Reading non legal magazines of the right type help too. Jurors do not usually read the Review of Books. They are not likely to read the Times Sunday cover to cover either. They read the Daily News or Post, a tabloid, People magazine, Ebony, Jet, Woman's Day, Cosmo, Maxim and Playboy, GQ, Time or Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. These are a few of what trial lawyers should be reading each month. Hanging around the office doing work that most lawyers hate doing, like trial briefs and reviewing the Casemap is a good way of prepping too. Of course looking on-line and reading at least a few of the blogs is also important.

The young lawyer should expect that Monday through Thursday will be 10-12 hour days. I like to see them alternate 10 one day 12 the next etc. Thursdays will also be a chance to go to bar and other oganizational meetings. Friday is a day of relaxation...after 4pm. Saturday or Sunday is meant for renewal but a few hours either in the office or at home working on self improvement or on office work should be required. The key to this is that the lawyer should want to do this. Part of the problem of course is that as someone points out (I think it was in Nicole's post) a lot of lawyers only see that the work they do at 25 years old brings a reward of more work after you become a partner. That is where the law firm culture comes in.

In my firm, there is a very low (compared to most firms) requested billable hour standard. I seek One Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Hours (1250) of billed time. I also expect the associate to be active in one or two Bar association activities and be working up the ladder there. After 3 years, belonging to a local business or other networking group (at church, in the community, a PTA) should also be part of the firm supported marketing approach. Writing and lectures are becoming a part of the regime also.

A key to this however is that, as a partner, I do not try to over leverage the work of the associates. In other words, I do not try to retire on the backs of my staff. I expect them to work. I may actually get out less work than they do, because of my rainmaking responsibilities. I cannot and do not want to so out-earn them that they feel every minute they spend working extra is so that I can go home with a fatter wallet.

How do I do this? By keeping a fair ratio between what I earn as a partner and what the lowest paid associate makes. Hence I think a Six to one (6:1) ratio is not only fair but gives the associate something to aspire to. It is also a way to not become a "You make what you eat" law firm. Rain is not over-appreciated and toiling uselessly and becoming a "stacks troll" isn't either. Family time is up held and no one has to worry that because they went to a football game to see their brother play that they are losing a spot on next years bonus roll.

When it comes to women, there is another thing that needs to be addressed and that is their traditional mother role. I would not steal a child from his mother, nor would I want one of my staff to lose the opportunity to become a partner, a lead trial lawyer, or any other opportunity because she chose to have and care for her child. Hence in my office, you do not lose your turn in line for partnership if you take time to have a baby, you are considered at six years out and at least two years with us, even if you had to stop a time or two to have a child. I am experimenting with an in-house nursery idea right now, and of course home-telecommuting.

Men too need time however, and their fuses should not be forgotten. Hence I also look to help my male attorney's take time off with their young ones and if employees do not have children, then childless employees plan for a sabbatical of at least four months after 7 years with the firm. There is no point in not taking it and it can only be put off for good reason and only for a period of 18 months.

Taking care of one's spirit is important. I am looking forward to memberships in gyms and personal training as a perk some day. I am also going to pepper the bonus's this year with Massage and Spa gift certificates.

I think that while dedication to clients is a very important obligation of a lawyer, one cannnot give much to that client, if he has nothing in the tank. I do not agree with Dan, work-life balance is an issue for partners. It didn't used to be. It has led to the sloppy lawyering and the dissatisfaction of so many promising attorneys. It is time we not only ask "What about Clients" but we ask simultaneously "What about Souls."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the mention, Tony--just noticed your post.

Both sides on argument have good points; it's true that I find most of the "new crop" of associates uninspired, baby-ish, delusional and wimpy. I wish them well--but they should find another career.

That Lawyer Dude said...

I think you may be right more often than not but I have so far been lucky. I am also not hiring presently right out of law school.
That said, part of the problem is also the big firm reality that more is more. I find it offensive that there is an associate anywhere out earning in his first or even third year, more than a jurist on a federal trial bench. I am sorry but I have met some really bright law students. Guys who have wound up earning ridiculous salary's and to a man and woman not a one was worth what they were paid in those years. I think the big firms would be better off rolling back salaries for years 1-3 and paying signing bonus' when they get to the 4th year.
If I was a general counsel I would hire a team of lawyers where I said who was on the team and I would have the work of the year 1-3 associate done by a small firm's associate who can break down depo's as well as a big firm associate at 1/3 the cost. Then I would have depo's done by that firms partners for 1/2 the cost of big firms. Finally I would if I felt I had too let the big firm guy try the case. I might hire the big firm partner to oversee the firms doing the work. I would still save my company a bundle.
That would be one way to knock some of the attitude out of some of these kids.
TLD

Anonymous said...

If I had worked for people who were as reasonable and well-rounded as you sound, then 10-12 hour days wouldn't be so bad, especially knowing a sabbatical is in the cards after 7 years. It's the 10-12 hour *grind,* taking outright abuse from partners, other associates, and clients alike, and then being told to "let it roll off," that is not worth sticking around for and makes associates separate "work" from "life." That is why I left the practice after 6 years, with not one regret. I'm not "one of those kids" with an attitude over the 6-figure salary I got at 27 years old. I would gladly have taken a 50% pay cut just to be treated like a human being.

I didn't leave because I'm not a good, hard-working lawyer with tremendous potential. I left because I'm not a good grinding associate with a healthy back to break, and because I didn't wear my billable hours as some kind of status symbol. If I go back to the practice in a few years, it will be to start my own firm, as several of my friends have done, and quite successfully. That is what my CLE focus is on in the meantime.

I am not uninspired, babyish, delusional or wimpy. I graduated from a top 25 law school, but not with a scholarship, not with a trust fund, and not with the silver spoon dozen job offers that come with graduating in the top 10%. I worked my butt off to make moot court, incurred 120k in student loans, and then put up with a lot of law firm bs before I left. I repeatedly tried professional and graceful means to resolve problems, but to no avail because the firm culture issues were so engrained. That's what it's really like out there.

My hat is off to you, Lawyer Dude, for realizing it's about your entire team. There is probably not much need for "work/life balance" discussions in a place where the work environment is worthy to be considered part of one's life.

My two favorite books right now are The Carrot Principle and The No Asshole Rule. If more lawyers read them and internalized them, maybe senior associates wouldn't be jumping ship at the rate they are.

That Lawyer Dude said...

Thanks for the comments Ashley, and for the compliments too.
I hope you do decide to jump into the small firm/ solo slot. If you do, let me recommend membership in the GP Solo division of the ABA and Law Practice Management too. Sure it adds about 80 bucks to the bill but I find them to be invaluable for the money they save me in good ideas and the support they provide. Good luck. TLD.

Mike said...

It's a good thing to have come across your article Anthony. I agree with you that studying the discipline is very difficult, much more if the law student is working, too. My sister is on her second year in law school and it's really becoming more difficult for her because she is also working full-time in a marketing company. She hardly finds time to rest because after work she has to go to school, and after school she has to read a lot. It's the same thing the next day. No time for play. Seeing her tired most of the time, I try to encourage her to study and do well in school. Just as you said in your blog, the work after becoming a lawyer is much harder. Since my sister is eyeing this reputable law firm in Ottawa as her future workplace, she must know how to balance work and play really well to be more an effective attorney.