Saturday, November 26, 2011

Staffing, Client Development and the Glob of Work

In this day and age, the economics of law firms requires that their constituent members/employees be fully deployed. Partners can only project their hiring needs to the extent that their clients themselves can predict their own business activities. Given today’s economic uncertainties, law firms are generally pretty cautious in hiring.  They hire permanent employees for client business which is in hand or immediately on the horizon and  at levels which they have every reason to believe will be sustained in, at least, the medium term.

Any one client matter  contains tasks calling for different levels of lawyering skill and experience.
 There are different constituents, internal and external, vying  at every experience level  where candidates are being hired to service, as opposed to originate,  some element of the client business, which I will call the “glob of work.”   

 At the top of the pyramid are the originating partners who bring in the client and its glob.  These folks usually have the most say in who, within a law firm, does the work.  For institutional clients, there might be a single or group of key partners charged with staffing a matter. 

The element of the glob which calls for the most junior level of skill and experience has the fewest kinds of lawyers competing for that work.  They are internal associates and prospective lateral associate hires.

For that element of the glob of work which calls for senior level experience and which is not being done by the originating partner, the landscape changes and becomes more competitive. You have internal senior associates, counsel, service partners and originating partners whose clients are having bad years, all competing internally for that work.

On the outside, as with more junior work,  at a senior level you have folks looking to be hired based upon the strength of their academics, skills and experience.  However, there is also another competitor.  There is the usually junior prospective lateral partner whose client base does not make her quite self supporting but who has the prospect of becoming so in the near future.

Take it as a given that the successful external candidates has to, first and foremost, be equipped to do their share of the glob, to have the appropriate academics, skills and experience.  However, bringing in of client business is seen as strong evidence of excellence, of partnership material. It demonstrates that the candidate understands the business of law firm practice in the present day. 

In most circumstances, the solid senior lawyer looking to be hired without evidence of client development interest or skill is in worst position of the outside contenders.  Most of the time, they will lose to the prospect who has demonstrated client development skills.

The better a case you can make for yourself that you are that entrepreneurial candidate who will become fully self supporting in the near to medium future, the easier time you  will have to be hired at a senior level.

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