Law360 Quotes Huse in "3 Ways Firms Bring Out the Worst in Attorneys"

Jill Huse, Partner and Co-Founder of Society 54, was quoted in the recent Law360 article, "3 Ways Firms Bring Out the Worst in Attorneys" by Aebra Coe. View the article on Law360 here.

Some law firms fail to promote collegiality through their policies and management, instead infusing venom into the relationships between their attorneys and dealing a fatal blow to firmwide harmony and productivity.

Finding a balance between fierce competition and productive collaboration among lawyers can be a precarious task for firm leaders, as interpersonal surprises pop up and envy, enmity and discontent strike at their attorney ranks, caused by nothing other than misguided management decisions.

Here, legal industry experts reveal the three biggest ways law firms unintentionally cultivate discord.

Inconsistent Feedback

Rewarding attorneys for the work they do should be a given, but some law firms fail to implement effective policies that incentivize lawyers to go above and beyond their normal job functions. That can breed discontent among those that do make the extra effort, but feel as if it was for naught, according to Diane Rifkin, founder of Rifkin Consulting.

"One significant stumbling block to harmony within a firm is the inconsistency between a firm's expectations for an attorney to develop business, and the lack of sufficient policies to motivate them to do so," Rifkin said.

She and her colleagues speak with many nonpartner-level attorneys who meet hourly expectations and bring in business, and yet receive little or no origination credit for their efforts, she said.

"Not only can this cause resentment and create the feeling of not truly being part of a team, but it denies a productive attorney the opportunity to enhance compensation and excel in a quantifiable way," Rifkin said. "As a result, law firms that develop a model rewarding productivity often have a higher retention rate."

In addition to implementing consistent methods for rewarding attorneys for good behavior, uniformity when holding them accountable for less-than-desirable performance is also necessary for avoiding discord, according to Jill Huse, co-founder of professional services consulting firm Society 54 LLC.

"All firms that I've ever worked with struggle with this," Huse said. "I have found that it can be very difficult for attorneys to hold their fellow colleagues and partners accountable, partly because they tend to avoid dealing with perceived conflicts and having difficult conversations."

A better tack would be to open up conversations among colleagues, even if they're uncomfortable, so that accountability is open and transparent, instead of festering under the surface until it explodes into a major problem, she said.

"While you would think that attorneys would be more comfortable than the average person at conflict resolution, when it comes to having these critical conversations with their colleagues, many are very resistant," Huse said.

Little Room for Growth

The No. 1 way law firm leaders can make their attorneys — and especially their associates — happy is by offering them the training, education, mentorship, technology and opportunity necessary to take their career to the next level, according to legal consultant Ed Poll.

And conversely, firms that allow associates to wallow in "assembly line" positions where they work a lot of hours with an opaque and winding path to partnership or other advancement opportunities are likely creating unhealthy competition, bad blood and unhappiness among their junior lawyers, he said.

"Don't treat attorneys like sweatshop workers," Poll said. "What happens is the associate tends to put their hours in and at some point finds a better opportunity and leaves the firm."

One area where this mentality of treating associates simply as worker bees instead of future partners spurs enmity among colleagues is during the case selection process, Poll said.

If one associate is handed a case that demands more from them, or works with a partner who allows them to perform more high-level work, that associate will have a better opportunity to advance within the firm. That leaves that person's colleague who was placed on a more run-of-the-mill case in the dust, and can breed resentment.

Poll suggested that a team or board made up of partners, associates and staff should work together on case selection, giving associates a voice.

"If you are getting the better cases, getting the better mentoring, getting better interaction with the client, you're going to do better and develop more," Poll said.

Peter Ocko, a managing director of Major Lindsey & Africa LLC, said the same is true for partners.

"With nonequity ranks shrinking and the bar for equity progressively higher, hostility can arise when origination and credit systems don't evolve to meet the challenges of partners working to grow their own practice," Ocko said. "Harmony rules and dollars flow when more feel like stakeholders than employees or competition."

A Lack of Openness

According to Huse, communication issues are a frequent source of discord in law firms.

“There is either a lack of communication being shared or bifurcated communication depending on a person’s status within the firm and what he/she is privy,” she said. “The lack of communication is often viewed as a lack of transparency, which will ultimately cause a loss of trust and declining morale.”

It happens at all levels, she said, from partners communicating with each other to their communication with associates and staff.

She said she remembers a time when a controversial person was hired at a firm without the partnership knowing and the partners found out through a blanket email to the entire firm announcing that the person had joined the firm.

"Associates and staff found out at the same time that the partners were briefed," Huse said. "This person was a direct conflict with several attorneys but they weren't consulted prior to the person being hired."

Those are the kinds of communication issues that are sure to create a good deal of resentment among attorneys, she said, and can ultimately lead to infighting or even mass departures.

She said that another time, she was in a meeting with five partners — all in the same practice area — discussing priorities of the firm's website. Partner A suggested the removal of a subpractice area from the site because no one in the firm was engaging in that type of work. Partner B, sitting across the table, said to Partner A, "That practice accounts for about 90 percent of my time and two of our associates," Huse said.

"I thought it was very unfortunate that partners from the same group didn’t know what each other did," she said.

Opacity in pay is another big reason that enmity builds among colleagues in law firms, according to legal industry consultant Frank D'Amore. Often, less-than-objective pay systems can come off as unfair to partners who make less than their peers and, due to a lack of transparency, can't even figure out why they make less money.

"Some believe that an objective system for compensation cures a lot of ills," D'Amore said. "People know how they'll be paid and that the formula is mechanically applied."