Are young lawyers being ignored in the race for the future of legal services

The just-published College of Law (Australasia) report suggests young lawyers are being ignored in the race for the future of legal services. 

This conclusion is based on a report on aspects of the future of legal services which found there is a large overlap between “the legal work graduates don’t want to do anymore and what clients don’t want to pay for anymore“. One of the reports key conclusions is “Young lawyers have a keener finger on the pulse than most older lawyers, yet their talents are not being properly or fully used.” 

Remaking News of the Week: Women founders

We are regularly reminded of the same dismal facts about the lack of anything near gender equality in BigLaw firms the world over. Some ‘name’ firms still have fewer than 10% of women in their equity ranks and, to my knowledge, no large law firm has anywhere close to 50%.

The commonly cited reasons include subconscious gender bias and family-unfriendly policies and practices. Or perhaps as today’s Remaking News of the Week feature shows women are finding other ways: Women-Owned Law Firms Surge Amid Gender Disparity in the Profession was published on 9 October 2018 in The NewYork Law Journal.

Glenn Gould, Bach and the beauty of flat teams

Remaking News of the Week: Law firm partnerships are losing their lustre

The inimitable John Gapper penned Law firm partnerships are losing their lustre with the sub-line The transfer market in talent is undermining traditional legal practices in the Financial Times back in May this year.

Citing high profiles lateral moves and raids in London, John points to the crisis that building a BigLaw firm by lateralling is causing. This snippet says it all: “The transfer market for lawyers has become so heated that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer introduced reforms this month to retain top partners by paying them up to six times what it gives to lesser lights“. 

Remaking News of the Week: Millennials vs. the billable hour

In their excellent Building NewLaw podcast series, my CounterTax friends in Toronto recently released Partnering with Millennials to build better law firms.

This interview is with Aly Haji who is researching what it means to be a millennial at a law firm, why they’re leaving en masse, why they find their jobs soul-crushing, and why all of this is a real problem for law firms. 

Remaking news of the week: Talent algorithm

This week we feature a talent algorithm; it speaks for itself. Recently with Alastair Morrison and Alan Peckham at the RSG Consulting event in Australia, Jodie Baker formulated this algorithm for attracting and motivating the best talent. It’s quintessential, to say the least.