At a panel during the Ninth Annual SuperConference, a lawyer from Exelon told the audience how that large law department makes sure managers each use a similar approach and grading style. The twenty managers of lawyers, those who evaluate lawyers who report to them, meet together to assure “ratings reliability.” In that session, the managers describe each lawyer they evaluate, explain the basis for the ratings given the lawyer, and field questions and comments from the other managers.
All law departments should emulate these practices. Fairness dictates that those who evaluate performance have reasonably consistent, articulated, and defended methods and outputs(See my post of Sept. 21, 2008: annual reviews and evaluations, with 12 references.).