The Future of Legal Careers

Posted on January 12, 2012 by | 1 Comment
In an article published online this week, Fast Company takes a look at “the career of the future.”  Anya Kamentz profiles a number of workers at varying stages of their careers, and examines how trends in employment are affecting today’s workforce.  Kamentz cites some interesting statistics.  U.S. workers’ median tenure in their current jobs is 4.4 years.  The average number of jobs an American man will hold in his lifetime is 11.4; for women the average is 10.7.  And for the individuals interviewed for the article, careers can span not only multiple companies but multiple industries.
For the legal industry, all of this may sound like a distant reality.  The law is a more stable industry than technology or publishing (both of which feature heavily in the article).  Yet lawyers and law firms have certainly seen more volatility in the legal job market in the past few years.  In addition to layoffs and hiring freezes caused by the economic downturn, law firms are seeing an increase in lateral hiring.  And attrition is an issue as well, as even high-performing lawyers may seek greater flexibility or new challenges in-house or in the public sector.
Why should these trends worry firms?  For starters, the lateral movement of attorneys from one firm to another, combined with attrition, can make succession planning a real challenge.  As relationship partners near retirement or prepare to move into another role, firms may find it hard to find senior lawyers who can garner the same loyalty and trust from the client.
The time and expense required to train lawyers is a factor as well.  For firms that hire attorneys immediately after law school or clerkships, there is a considerable investment made in these young lawyers’ development.  And economic conditions have made clients more resistant towards footing the bill for this training.  By the time an attorney has progressed to the level of senior associate or partner, the loss of that lawyer to another firm, an in-house department, or even another career carries with it a loss on investment.
As law firms make long-term decisions about succession planning and talent development, they will need to consider how to manage a workforce that is more mobile than ever before.  But they can take a page from companies that are already dealing with the difficulties posed by shifting career models:
Even as individuals… are adapting to new career paradigms, so are large companies – but on a scale of tens of thousands of employees.  They have to hire people for jobs that don’t exist yet, spot the dynamic shifters while screening out the dilettantes, and clear paths for high performers so they can find enough variation within corporate confines.
For law firms, this might mean the expansion of alternative tracks, moving lawyers out of legal practice and into business development or marketing positions, and above all, staying flexible.