Something that has been increasingly apparent from my conversations with lawyers and law firms lately, is the tension or disconnect between them. It seems that in the current market, the dynamic between junior lawyers, senior lawyers and law firms, is particularly strained.
According to some more senior lawyers, there is a perception that junior lawyers today seem to be a little too comfortable coasting along, pushing back and setting boundaries while at the same time, demanding more (in terms of money and flexibility). If I’m being honest, the word ‘entitled’ has been thrown around.
Fledgling lawyers, on the other hand, are fed up with, and rejecting, burnout culture. They are adamant that the answer to “do you have capacity?” does not always have to be a resounding and unthinking “yes” and that the billable hour should take a back seat to wellbeing and work life balance (or at least some semblance of it).
Is it possible that this next generation of lawyer are onto something? A lot of them are earning eye-watering amounts that would have been unimaginable even just a couple of years ago, working more flexibly and increasingly finding their voices when it comes to setting boundaries on issues like pay, workload, burnout and office attendance. They are pluckier, and more assertive than their predecessors and they aren’t prepared to prioritise work over wellbeing (nor should they). Good on them, right? Right?
Depends on who you’re talking to. The flip side is that senior lawyers and partners definitely seem to be growing increasingly frustrated with this new trend. For most, it goes beyond the sentiment of “we paid our dues, now you pay yours”. It’s actually about the formula that utilisation = experience and junior utilisation just isn’t what it used to be. It’s also about the upstream ripple effect – when junior lawyers aren’t putting their hands up for the work as much, when they aren’t in the office as much, when they aren’t upskilling as quickly as their predecessors did, senior lawyers are doing a lot more of the work. And drowning in it.
From the perspective of law firms, the tension between productivity/output and pay is a serious issue. While in recent years, salaries have seemingly known no bounds, productivity has been a different story and this discrepancy means trouble for law firms’ ROI. As this recent article in Lawyer’s Weekly put it, the “greater concern for Australian firms, big and small, is that lawyers are becoming more expensive and less productive”. In short, they are getting much less bang for their buck.
From the conversations I’ve been having with each of these three key players in the legal space, one thing rings true across the board: right now, they all feel like they’re playing a zero-sum game.