More new jobs begin in January than any other month. This means that your firm is likely to receive several resignations in January and throughout the first quarter of the new year. If you handle the resignations you receive this year effectively, you will have fewer resignations in the first quarter of 2000.

A lawyer’s voluntary resignation is a process. Lawyers become separated from the firm long before they leave it. Subtle things influence lawyers as their tenure with the firm progresses. A review that tells a lawyer he is "not developing as well as we’d like you to," a perceived lack of recognition for work done, or lack of appreciation for non-billed time can lead a lawyer to erroneously conclude that his future lies elsewhere.

Every loss of a lawyer costs a law firm revenue. This is true whether or not the lawyer was one the firm wanted to keep. There’s an old marketing adage that when a customer is unhappy, they won’t tell the business owner, but they will tell seventeen other people, who will tell seventeen others and so on. The same is true when a lawyer leaves a law firm. If the lawyer goes with ill will, he will damage the firm’s business, often in more substantial ways than might at first be apparent.

Knowing that the firm cannot be all things to all lawyers, these techniques can be used both before and after a lawyer is separating to minimize damage to the firm and the relationship:

Communicate with your lawyers. Most of them will not tell you what they really feel unless they are close to you and comfortable with you. Trust is essential. Knowledge of lawyers’ wishes and expectations is essential for you to fashion a job that will keep them satisfied, productive and engaged with the firm.

Recognize that management’s perception of events, just because it is based on different and often superior knowledge, is not the same as the perception of other lawyers in the firm. Unless lawyers are communicating with management regularly and openly, management will have no idea what the perception of certain events is "in the trenches."

It’s not enough to know what your lawyers want; you also have to do something about it. Whether the issue is moving a lawyer from one department to another, providing more client contact or court opportunities, adjusting billable hour requirements, or encouraging pro bono work, sooner rather than later lawyers will want action on their complaints.

Deal honestly and fairly with compensation issues. It is far better to advise the lawyer that his compensation is not what he wants it to be for some objective reason (e.g. his hours are lower than his comparators, he has brought in fewer clients) than any subjective one. Subjective comparison to others will never be acceptable.

Foster an environment within the firm that lets lawyers know the firm will be sorry to lose them, but will understand if they choose to make their careers in another type of practice. Big firm life (or small firm life, or corporate law department life, or government service) is not for everyone. People do change and do seek change just for the sake of change.

Offer sincere regrets that the lawyer is leaving the firm. Make the transition as smooth as possible. Provide any assistance that may be required in the relocation.

Refer business to the lawyer after she leaves. Let her know there are no hard feelings. She was a good lawyer when the firm hired her, and her time at the firm increased her value to the profession. Be sure you let her know that the firm still wishes her success and intends to contribute to that success. She will return the favor.

Ask the lawyer to refer business to your firm, particularly in areas that are outside her personal expertise or outside the scope of her new job. If the lawyer did not feel valued when she was at the firm, she will not want to refer business to the firm when she leaves to join a corporate law department. Be sure she doesn’t view your firm marketing efforts as manipulative. And never go around the lawyer in her new department to others she works with in an attempt to get business.

Apply the Platinum Rule: Treat your lawyers not the way you believe is fair, but the way they believe is fair. Just because the senior partners worked seven days a week as junior associates does not mean current junior associates will do so. Just because senior partners waited fifteen years to make significant profits from the firm does not mean the mid-level partners will do so. Just because the senior partners feel the value of a share of the firm is substantial, does not mean the entry level partners will pay those sums happily.

Recognize that your relationship with your lawyers is a satisfaction contract. Perhaps the firm’s lawyers serve at the will of the firm, but recall that the firm’s perspective is only half the story. The employment relationship is also dependent on the will of the lawyer. Either party can terminate the relationship at any time. The firm’s goal should be to preserve and protect the departing lawyer as an asset to the organization.

©PeopleWealth December 1998