For various reasons, partners in a law firm might want to investigate the degree of equality some set of data exhibits. Nine examples of the kinds of inquiries that might focus on what is commonly called ‘inequality’ follow:
- How evenly distributed have the total fees paid by our top clients been over the past few years?
- Do our partners open new matters at approximately the same pace?
- Do partners use a variety of associates and on a range of projects?
- How balanced are our Practice Group associates located across our domestic offices?
- Have we allocated annual bonuses in reasonably equitable amounts?
- When we invest marketing dollars, does each Practice Group get reasonably similar amounts (after adjusting for size of Group)?
- Are the marketing efforts of partners smoothly spread around (perhaps after weighting articles, blog posts, quotes and presentations)?
- Is usage of IT and calls to the help desk relatively evenly distributed?
- Have we even-handedly doled out funds for continuing legal education?
For each use of these situations, data is available and the firm could to measure what we might call “egalitarianism.” This article briefly introduces several methods to determine inequality. We will calculate them for a hypothetical firm.
