Associates
K&L Gates Wants to Give Associates More Say-So
Posted Apr 17, 2008, 10:01 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The head of recruitment and development at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis says the firm wants to give associates a bigger say in firm initiatives.
Susan Fried told The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times that the law firm asked associates to brainstorm ideas at an associates’ symposium last month. The event ended with associates presenting their ideas to firm managers.
Already the firm is taking action on one suggestion. The associates said the firm’s allowance for pro bono hours is too low. Currently the firm allows associates to count 50 pro bono hours towards the billable-hour bonus goal of 1,950 hours.
Now the firm plans to allow first-year associates to count 100 hours of pro bono work and second-years to count 75 hours towards billables.
The theme of the associate symposium was “Ideas in Motion,” according to the law firm’s website. Fried says the events have been held “sporadically” since 2000, but they will now be scheduled every year.