Women in the Law
A Law Firm Ditches the Lockstep System and Retains More Women
Posted Jul 31, 2008, 05:04 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A law firm that replaced lockstep promotions with a system based on competency has seen the percentage of women lawyers leaving the firm drop below that of men.
Husch Blackwell Sanders had an average annual attrition of about 30 percent when it had the old lockstep system. Under the new program, attrition dropped to about 14 percent overall and to about 10 percent for women in 2005 and 2006, a diversity consultant says in an article for the New York Law Journal.
The consultant, Melissa McClenaghan Martin, writes that law firms have adopted programs addressing work-life issues to keep women, but they are failing to address these lawyers’ primary source of dissatisfaction. Work-life issues are important, she writes, but the major reason women leave is different.
“As numerous studies have shown,” Martin writes, “women leave firms because they are dissatisfied with stalled advancement and career opportunities, unsatisfying work and ‘unsupportive’ work environments.”
She points to Husch Blackwell’s competency-based level system used to evaluate associates as a promising program. The system designates three levels for associate development, with 17 skills and performance competencies for each level. Associates are evaluated twice a year. They don’t advance to the next level—and they don’t get a raise and they don’t increase their billing rates—until partners decide they are ready.
Associates know where they stand under the competency system, while under a lockstep system they may get little feedback until they are evaluated for partnership. Partners have an incentive to promote associates’ development so billing rates can be increased.
Husch Blackwell partner Peter Sloan, who wrote an article (PDF) on the program, said the mutual incentive to promote is important. Training, mentoring and coaching are viewed as an "investment in developing our associate talent, not an expense," he said. "Increased associate competency is directly tied to increased firm revenue."
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Comments
Posted by Joe - 4 months, 1 day, 12 hours, 11 minutes ago
The law is a tough business, something that is not only not emphasized to prospective first-years, but is not even mentioned. The emphasis is on the difficulty in getting through law school with a dash of “the law is great intellectual pursuit” - and so it is. But that is not all it is. I went to law school later in life. I remember talking to one of my professors and I mentioned the necessity of dragging business through the door. He told me that if I was working for a law firm where I had to be concerned about that, I was working for the wrong law firm. My experience has been, if you’re not prepared to do your part to kill the deer, there won’t be a law firm to give you a paycheck. I don’t know many female rainmakers, do you?
Posted by Nancy - 4 months, 1 day, 9 hours, 26 minutes ago
Wow. You don’t know many female rainmakers? Maybe that’s because you’ve been spending your time on golf courses or bars with only your male buddies. Hmmm…why are those invitations so exclusive? Maybe you should broaden your network and invite more female associates to events.
Posted by SBW - 4 months, 1 day, 8 hours, 18 minutes ago
Nancy, I couldn’t agree more! Men like Joe need to get rid of the notion that the practice of law is still the old boy’s club. I know plenty of female rainmakers. In fact, I could argue that women would make better rainmakers when given the opportunity, because we are naturally more charming.
Posted by Sue - 4 months, 1 day, 8 hours, 10 minutes ago
Wow, promotions based on competency! Why is this a novel idea to the law profession? Most other businesses have been doing this all along.
Posted by Ronnie - 4 months, 1 day, 7 hours, 39 minutes ago
Hmm, I work in an all female firm. Three attorneys, three staff, rotating receptionists, all female. Three offices pretty much cover all of VA. OH, and have have over $1 million in revenue a year, specializing exclusively in domestic. Interesting how that works isn’t it?
Posted by Kim - 4 months, 1 day, 6 hours, 59 minutes ago
I agree women are automatically more charming. Do you know how many male executives fall all over themselves when an attractive female lawyer is courting their business? In my experience, female executives also appreciate having a female lawyer with whom they can relate. Woman certainly are very competent rain makers. I think Joe might need to leave the deer stand once in a while and open his eyes.
Posted by Heater - 4 months, 1 day, 5 hours, 25 minutes ago
It is boys like Joe that have been keeping the glass ceiling in place at too many firms and why the attrition rate is so high. Maybe the next step will be to hire by competency - wouldn’t that be novel also instead of rules supposedly based on competency but really only have to do with who is in the elitist club. I like the competency program especially because it applies to all diversity groups. Joe’s thinking shows just how “the old boy’s club” effect keeps the legal industry from being the model for anti-discrimination and diversity that it should be considering we are advocates of the LAW. Ever heard of the Amazons??
Posted by Over it - 3 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 11 hours, 40 minutes ago
Nancy - Invites to firm events depend on interests. I don’t know too many women who enjoy a golf outing. If any woman shows an interest in golf, she will surely get an invite to play. Of course we wouldn’t invite women associates/parnters to bars where guys are hanging out… that is the whole purpose of a group of guys going to a bar. We want to drink beer/whiskey, flirt, do guy things that some women may be offended by.
SBW - I also know plenty of female rainmakers, however charm has nothing to do with being successful. They are successful because they have a get-the-job-done attitude and achieve results for their clients. Being able to charm some old frisky executive out of his business. Which brings me to. . .
Kim - Again charm has nothing to do with it. The fact that you even suggest that attractiveness should play a role in “courting executives business” is a detriment to the female gender. That a way to perpetuate the “women get far in this world because the hike up their skirt and get down to business” stereotype.
Heater - I may not agree with everything that Joe said, but there is some truth his statement. There is no glass ceiling. I work with several female associates and partners. They are paid the same salary as male associates and partners and the recieve the same quality of work. What separates those who make partner and those who do not is the level of their performance and ability to achieve favorable results for clients. That is what makes a rainmaker, not the “good ole boy’s club”.
Anyone besides me see the feminist slant in this article. I’m sure that male counterparts have left firms because they were fed up with the lockstep system and wanted to be evaluated based on their merit. Yet the article portrays the current firm climate as one where only females are dissatisfied with the system. So much for journalistic integrity.