INTEGRATING NEW LAWYERS INTO EXISTING FIRM CULTURE

Forward thinking management teams at our best law firm clients demonstrate significant foresight by adopting a proactive approach to getting merger candidates and lateral hires integrated into the firm as quickly and efficiently as possible. Properly managed, lateral lawyers can add profits to the bottom line, boost department morale, and be the assets the firm envisioned when the lateral lawyers were hired. Improperly handled, lateral lawyers can become terrorists within your firm, causing more chaos.

Whenever a new lawyer is added to the firm, he brings along his own culture. A meshing of the new lawyer's culture and the culture of the existing firm is essential to the success of the merger or lateral hire. The firms that understand this dynamic beat the dismal odds against successful lateral hiring, whether on an individual basis or through mergers between firms.

The success of any merger is, in large part, determined by how well the lawyers can quickly develop an integrated culture and decide to work toward common goals. In today’s business environment, where lawyers understand the value of developing their own portable “book of business,” lawyers must have an emotional stake in your firm if they are to stay with you and perform up to your expectations. Statistics show that 65-95% of all mergers fail. In addition, 23% fail to recover the costs of the merger and 33-50% of acquisitions are divested within five years. More alarmingly, 30% of mergers substantially erode shareholder/partner return and 33% create only marginal shareholder/partner return. The statistics for retaining a single lateral hire are similarly dismal. These small mergers are fraught with as many difficulties as the larger ones.

A major factor in merger failure is an underestimation of the difficulties of merging two cultures, leaving new team members feeling like outsiders at the existing firm. All mergers create, to some extent, an "us" v. "them" dynamic. Most people find their own methods familiar and comfortable, and associate their own methods with success. This is particularly true of lawyers who are, by definition, the nation’s highest achievers.

To obtain the expected synergies of a merger, both the added lawyers and the firm must strive quickly to achieve a combined culture. Without such a culture integration project, lower productivity and an atmosphere of high anxiety, hostility, alienation and apathy may result. Either the newly added lawyers leave the firm again, or they fail to become dynamic team players.

As a practical matter, the existing firm culture will predominate. But there may be benefits to integrating some aspects of the culture of the merged lawyers into the new culture, too. A law firm wisely selects established, experienced lawyers to add to the team. They will have positive culture contributions to make.

The challenge of culture integration projects is to create an environment of trust and an atmosphere in which the added lawyers will conclude that they want to become a "New Firm Lawyer."

Once the new lawyers are added to the team, it is desirable to get the culture integration program off the ground quickly. An easy place to begin is with a series of informal "brown bag lunches." To supplement those informal sessions, PeopleWealth interviews new lawyers to identify their culture integration needs. We prioritize efforts and define short, mid, and long term goals for the project as well as future mergers and lateral hires.

After the assessments, a variety of methods that can be used to affect culture, including rewards, recognition, and policies and processes that impact the way the lawyers perceive and respond to culture issues. Sharing the desired information can be accomplished using a range of options and each method has its strengths and weaknesses.

The first method, "telling" is the one with which we begin. The leaders of the firm will tell the firm what their combined culture is. The subtext is "Here's our vision. Get excited about it!" This also involves some "selling," i.e. attempting to motivate support for the firm's vision. In effect, saying "We think this is the best answer. Can we get your buy-in?"

At the same time, some "testing," "consulting" and "co-creating" will likely be required. PeopleWealth will devise ways to ask the new lawyers to provide input to increase buy-in and take advantage of positive suggestions. This is where we use some version of these questions: "What excites you about our vision? What doesn't work? Why? What is your recommendation for change? We want to build the kind of future we can all get excited about."

Through these methods, together we devise programs that meets the needs of law firms and the new lawyers added to the practice. PeopleWealth programs build in significant flexibility so that we can adapt the program as it develops.

Law firms sometimes think they can adopt the PeopleWealth approach to culture integration on their own, to avoid working with consultants or to save costs. Typically, these inside initiatives do not work as well because the climate of trust necessary to make them successful has not been established. Busy leading lawyers on the management team must take billable time to devote to the project, which usually means that the project has a lower priority. The internal approach also creates hidden costs in lost billable time that far exceed potential consultant fees.

We look forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting involved in your culture integration project soon. Please give us a call at your convenience to schedule our first planning sessions.

PeopleWealth works with individual lawyers and law firms increase profitability through job satisfaction and help lawyers design and build successful careers. Contact the PeopleWealth office, e-mail us: info@PeopleWealth.com

©PeopleWealth Spring 2002