Gaps Remain as Firms Focus on Business, Professional Development
Law firms know developing talent and growing their client base go hand in hand, but they still struggle to balance those efforts, a new survey finds.
June 15, 2020 at 01:50 PM
5 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The American Lawyer
The largest law firms are pouring substantial resources into business development training, cultivating leadership skills and professional coaching, according to a new report, and they're fielding teams of marketing professionals and lawyers to court and maintain clients.
But the report found that the efforts—and the results—have been uneven, especially when it comes to developing leadership and building effective client teams.
The study, conducted between July and November 2019 and featuring responses from 65 professional development leaders representing 40% of the Am Law 100, was led by Marcie Borgal Shunk, president and founder of legal consulting firm The Tilt Institute, and Silvia Coulter, principal at LawVision Group.
"One thing I was pleased to see was the high level of investment in coaching and training for business development," Borgal Shunk said. "That was a plus. I was less pleased to see the client teams at law firms, which have been an area of focus for years, have not necessarily solved the equation, and they haven't been as effective as we hoped."
The survey found that 86% of partners and 93% of associates received sales and business development training. On the professional development side, half of the firms represented in the survey provided individual assessments to lawyers, and just a quarter offered personal assessments to nonlawyer professional staff.
Size was a major factor in the resources firms devoted to professional development, with 7.2 full-time employees devoted to those efforts at Am Law 100 firms, compared to 2.8 at Second Hundred firms.
Meanwhile, the survey found that client teams are present in many firms, but also that their success rate leaves significant room for growth. Only 7% of those surveyed said their client teams programs were "wildly successful" and only 14% said the teams were "highly effective."
Coulter said she didn't believe there was any fundamental flaw with the concept of a client team, but rather a lack of effective training on how to put members' skills to work.
"Some firms, like Eversheds and Morgan Lewis, have seen great success with their client teams," Coulter said, noting she spoke with representatives from both firms at a recent panel she moderated. "When run well with the right strategic focus, they can be wildly successful. But they are not living up to expectations at some firms, and that is due to them not getting the right training."
The survey also found room for improvement when it comes to leadership development.
"On the leadership side we found, not surprisingly but interestingly enough when you attached numbers to it, that leadership development is an area that has been under-focused," Borgal Shunk said.
The survey found that 66% of firms offered leadership development for attorneys, mostly starting at the senior associate level. But just 32% of partners and 15% of associates received leadership courses, and more often than not, leadership training was provided as part of a broader program on development instead of as its own, focused program.
"You have attorneys taking a course on leadership at a university and then that's it," Coulter said. "Excellent leadership requires ongoing training in order to hone skills. You may learn something from a course, but you won't learn how to deal with the nuances of leadership—especially when you are running an organization that is flat and everyone thinks they have a say."
Borgal Shunk and Coulter said that part of the issue with getting more firms active in leadership training is the perception that it is not a teachable skill: You either have it or you don't.
"Oftentimes leaders, especially in client teams, have had no training in leading a team outside of a litigation team," Coulter said.
Borgal Shunk said that with regard to leadership, the first step is recognizing there is a problem.
"It's hard to get leaders to admit they could be better," Borgal Shunk said. "Once we get to that point, it becomes easier."
Other highlights of the survey include:
- Professional development heads rated their leadership development programs as a "4" on a scale of 1-10.
- Most firms spend less than $10,000 a year per attorney on professional development. None of the responding firms spent more than $20,000 per attorney per year.
- 27% of firms in the survey involved their business development teams in lawyer leadership training.
- Professional development declines with age: Associates with two or fewer years of experience received about 80 hours of training. Partners with three plus years in that role received an average of 27.3.
- Am Law 100 firms had about double the amount of business development professionals on the firm payroll as those in the Am Law Second Hundred. The ratio of BD professionals to attorneys remained consistent, however.
Read More
Jump-Starting Business Development After Living in a Socially Distant World
Communication Best Practices for Client Retention
Six Business Development Tips for Lawyers During COVID-19
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllHighest-Earning Partners May Be Looking to Cash In on Early Retirement
5 minute readGrayRobinson Opens Office in Pensacola, Marking First New Office Since 2019
3 minute readFrost Enters Arizona Market With Acquisition of Litigation Boutique
Law Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Nevada Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Groundbreaking Contingency Cap Ballot Measure
- 2OpenAI Tells Court It Will Seek to Consolidate Copyright Suits Under MDL
- 34th Circuit Allows State Felon Voting Ban Challenge to Go Forward
- 4Class Actions Claim Progressive Undervalues Totaled Cars
- 5How the Trump II Administration Can Combat Antisemitism
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250