Virtually every law firm in the country will have partners who could do better and contribute more to the firm. In many firms, a lack of a formal appraisal procedure means that their fellow partners are failing to take them to task. This can result in an established culture of underperformance within the firm, leading in some cases to complacency and poor profitability.
The problem of underperforming partners is particularly prevalent in small to medium-sized firms, where there can be a reluctance to confront difficult issues within the partnership on a formal level. This is clearly something that needs to be addressed if these firms are to increase their profitability. However, before firms can tackle the issue of underperformance, management needs to establish a means of judging who exactly is underperforming.
