While the economy slows and most major law firms are tempering their hiring plans for this financial year, leading teams in areas that are less market sensitive, such as insurance and construction law, are still in a race for top law firm talent.
While some firms are simply lowering their hiring standards, others are tackling the issue more strategically, and are applying equal energy to the attraction, development, and retention of current and future stars. The teams achieving sustained growth by succeeding in each of those areas are generally offering their lawyers and their prospective hires incentives in four key areas.
This article explores those four areas in order of their importance.
1. Remuneration and Benefits
It’s no secret that pre-2020, law firms were among the most conservative workplaces in the corporate world – flexibility, parental leave and remuneration (at a sub-partner level) were all common grievances.
Happily, that has now been flipped on its head by the post-lockdown economic boom and candidate shortage that followed. 2021 and 2022 saw salaries rise at a breakneck pace, particularly for lateral hires.
Similarly, many firms entered the unofficial race to offer the market’s leading parental leave entitlements, with some more than doubling the entitlements on offer less than four years ago.
Those of us who had been questioning whether this rate of growth was sustainable have already received our answer, with at least five major firms making redundancies and countless more having to curb their salary and headcount growth. That said, those firms managing to attract top talent in high-demand areas are still finding a way to offer above-market salaries.
2. Mentoring and development
One of the major factors impacting staff retention during lockdowns was the loss of development opportunities for more junior lawyers no longer sharing a workspace with their mentors.
Now in the highly flexible, work-from-anywhere, post-pandemic world, the benefits of operating within earshot of more experienced practitioners and learning by osmosis have been compromised.
The teams with the best retention rates are finding ways to retain flexibility and implement formal structured mentoring and development programs that can operate effectively irrespective of who’s in the office and when.
3. Pathways and opportunities
Another strategy (whether deliberately designed to retain staff or otherwise) has been to ensure that lawyers are presented with clear pathways for continued progression.
The most common complaint of senior lawyers approaching me to assist them with a move is that they lack such opportunities.
Firms currently outpacing the market at both hiring and retention are ensuring that both existing staff and prospective hires understand that the firm is offering a career path, and not just a job.
4. Staff engagement
Perhaps the most significant factor impacting staff retention is the level of engagement subjectively felt by each individual lawyer at the firm.
A fully engaged lawyer feels both socially connected with the people in their team, and deeply committed to the shared mission of the organisation, firm or clients.
Staff engagement doesn’t happen by accident – firms need to actively foster inclusive and vibrant social cultures as well as creating a sense of professional camaraderie.
While prospective hires will be attracted to salaries, benefits, development and progression opportunities, people are ultimately loyal to people, not jobs or organisations.
The firms I see leading the race to attract, develop and retain top talent are excelling in all four of the above categories, but in particular, have a socially and professionally engaged workforce.