MCG JPG Logo
  September 2007  
 

Welcome to The One Minute Manager. Our goal is to provide you with quick tips that will enhance the success of your practice. Within 60 seconds you will gain an idea that will increase your profitability or simply ease the burden of a difficult management issue. We hope you will find this a valuable resource.

The One Minute Manager . . . . .

In the past few months I have had a surprising number of phone calls from clients questioning how to deal with their super-achieving associates. You would hardly think that this would be a difficult management problem. After all, highly productive lawyers with solid client relationships produce the fertile groundwork for future partners.

The issue is that these over achievers have become more demanding of compensation and other privileges than many of the partners. Managing Partners are faced with making concessions that crowd the income level of entry level partners and those partners that have become moribund. This creates a tense environment where the partners feel they have lost control over the too-pushy associates.

This problem is the product of the ever increasing "Talent Wars". The compensation paid to attract and retain associates has risen to unprecedented levels. In the meantime, partner incomes have shown relatively modest gains. The narrowing gap makes it difficult to move a "Star" from the hyper market-valued compensation to partner income participation. Without a quantum leap in income, some associates are less inclined to accept partnership and will seek a lateral move.

Managing Partners are now becoming wary of any associate that becomes too important. Loading up a single associate with high billable hours and key client contacts is providing the associate with too much leverage. They consider that it is better to add to the associate ranks to provide a more balanced workload and diminish control that can be exerted by an associate that becomes too invaluable.

Somehow putting a limiter on a high potential associate seems counter intuitive. The real problem may be that the firm's profitability is too marginal to retain the best associates; or, the partners are not prepared to pay a superior income to invest in the long-term future of the firm. This issue demonstrates the need to strive towards achieving top law firm profitability to allow the investment in your "Stars".


Robert Hardie, Managing Director
Management Counsel Group

phone: (416) 402-0759