Evaluation. The word once conjured up visions of a 5 minute chat in a partner’s office where you were asked if everything was going well, told your work was fine and sent back to your office to continue on along the same path. Now, along with many other facts of law firm life, the scenario has changed. Evaluations have taken on an importance that they never had before. Associates are not only judged on the basis of their work skills and performance targets but now have the added anxiety that termination could be the result of a less than glowing review.
A combination of the economic downturn, the events of Sept. 11, the need for accountability due to high starting salaries and over-hiring have all caused firms to finally look at the methods that they were using to review associate performance. Corporations have long had in place complex and standardized evaluation processes. Law firms are just now instituting such systems. Depending upon the consultant hired or the management book read by the human resources department, evaluations or performance reviews are now found in many configurations in most law firms.
