Reply to Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Big Law partner here:  it’s been a vicious cycle. As it has gotten harder to make partner, there’s more associate attrition because the payoff for all that effort becomes less certain. As associate attrition increases, the value of investing in developing and mentoring associates decreases, because they are less likely to stick around.  Rinse and repeat for the past three decades and you end up with the current situation.

Firms’ response to this dynamic has typically been to firehose cash on associates, but it doesn’t solve the problem. People don’t work as hard as we need them to work just for a paycheck—if they don’t feel like they are building something for themselves they don’t push hard enough. I don’t blame them. It’s a rational response to incentives.

And now with the rage for increased leverage, the path has gotten even narrower and the status of partners is much less secure than it was historically. I think a lot of our most talented people see going for it as a bad bet, and they vote with their feet.  At least, they did before the current economic craziness, where it seems that anyone who has a job is holding on to it for dear life. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics