Articles Posted in Talent

“We evaluate courage as a behavioral characteristic of our lawyers, and we link this evaluation to compensation.” This comment, from John Donohue the General Counsel of Rhodia, Inc., probably refers to the intestinal fortitude in-house counsel need to take a position that is not favored by a client. It takes courage to say to a senior executive, “there’s a legal problem with your approach.” He is the subject of a profile in InsideCounsel, July 2007 at 96.

It also takes courage to reach a conclusion and defend it tenaciously (but honestly) against those who disagree, especially if they are higher ranking lawyers (See my post of April 12, 2006 about leadership and courage.). It takes courage to start a management initiative and stick to it through the bumpy start up period. It takes courage to deliver a tough evaluation to a subordinate.

Brave words from Donohue, one might say, but the evaluation of courage must be highly subjective. When do clients praise obstructionist lawyers? How can self-reports of bold conviction by lawyers be reliable? Or perhaps Rhodia’s law department conducts client-satisfaction surveys that ask about the courage displayed by individual lawyers.

By contributing author Jane DiRenzo Pigott, R3 Group LLC

A best practice in the diversity and inclusion world is diversity training. Many law departments conduct diversity training as part of their ongoing diversity efforts. Even so, for a number of reasons diversity training may be disruptive and detract from efforts to improve the inclusiveness of a law department.

First, many law departments just aren’t ready for diversity training. The diversity effort hasn’t yet been expanded to include everyone within the department. Instead, there is a diversity committee normally composed of people who are diverse by gender, ethnicity or race, sexual orientation and disability. That committee is charged with diversity and few others in the department, especially not the able-bodied white straight men, understand the committee’s goals and plans. There needs to be more effective communication at this stage to produce any benefit out of diversity training.

Law departments are better places if their members are committed to it and to the company they work for. A pamphlet by Stanton Marris, Energizing the Organization, 2007, Issue 10, provides some data to energize awareness of this result. It cites the Corporate Leadership Council, Employee Engagement Survey, 2004 for the finding that if people are committed to their organization “they try 57% harder, perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave.”

Another study, by the Corporate Executive Board, found that employees with lower engagement are four times more likely to leave their jobs than those who are highly engaged (See my post of June 11, 2007 and references cited. Furthermore, “the single most important contributor to the feelings of employee engagement, empowerment and satisfaction is based on the relationship they have with the leaders of the organization” (See my post of June 24, 2007 on a leader’s effect on followers’ satisfaction levels.).

Legal Week, in association with LexisNexis, recently canvassed 430 US and UK-qualified lawyers — including an undisclosed number of in-house lawyers. The survey looked at their needs for continuing professional development (CPD), and whether they believe the training currently being offered to them is “up to scratch.” All solicitors and registered European lawyers (RELs) who are in legal practice or employment in England and Wales, and who work 32 hours or more each week are required to complete a minimum of 16 hours of CPD per year.

According to the article’s summary of responses, in-house counsels’ opinions were similar to those of their external-counsel counterparts. “Despite the higher demand on the part of their clients for non-legal business advice, a similar picture emerges among in-house lawyers in terms of their professional development needs. “Ninety-five percent see technical skills training as paramount, alongside one in eight who rate managerial skills and two-thirds who value leadership training.”

To know the law is a prerequisite, an assumption by internal clients, yet those in-house lawyers who excel have also become adept at many complementary skills (See my May 10, 2006 on rankings of the non-substantive skills needed for in-house lawyers.).

Every now and then a general counsel, or any in-house lawyer who manages people, has two reports who just rub each other the wrong way. Here are six techniques for how to reduce the angst.

a) Separate the feuders, so that they do not have to interact or so that their interactions are minimized.

b) Coach the quarrelers, so that they at least recognize what triggers tension and can draw on a broader range of appeasement or reconciliation methods (See my post of June 9, 2007on coaching and seven references cited.).

As of 2004, MetLife’s law department, which had 200 lawyers at the time, conducted formal mid-year performance evaluations. It required all employees and managers to acknowledge, in writing, that they had reviewed all the employee’s goals and discussed the employees’ performance against important competencies (See my post of Aug. 16, 2006 on core competencies.).

In the words of the law department administrator at the time, quoted in Rees Morrison, Law Department Administrators: Lessons from Leaders (Hildebrandt Inst. 2004) at 21, “As we all know, lawyers are not always the best managers so having a formal mid-year review process ensures that these discussions are taking place” (See my post of Nov. 6, 2006 on the time demands of mid-year reviews.).

A telecommunications law department that had 63 lawyers three years ago was suffering under budget constraints. It established an “Activities Team” (A-Team) to plan morale building and networking activities for the department. The A-Team held such events as monthly breakfasts, Halloween parties for department members and their children and, a Margaritaville party with contests for the wildest tropical shirt—the prizes were decorated flip-flops.

As recounted the by administrator of that law department in Rees Morrison, Law Department Administrators: Lessons from Leaders (Hildebrandt Inst. 2004) at 14, “These very inexpensive activities bring the department together at work but in a setting away from their offices, and have been very successful” (See my posts of Oct. 30, 2005 on other morale boosters; and Nov. 19, 2005 for morale uplifts at Reuters.).

Partners Healthcare, while it had 24 lawyers in 2004, sponsored a program for “Attorney Fellows,” who worked in the Office of the General Counsel for two year stints. At any one time there were two Attorney Fellows each with two-year positions. The program introduced lawyers to non-profit, healthcare and in-house legal practice. During a Fellowship, if a permanent position became vacant, the Fellow was eligible to apply for the position.

Partners Healthcare hired lawyers with two-to-four years of post-law school experience, either in a judicial clerkship or in a big law firm. That experience let them take on work without requiring significant training.

The Fellows took a burden off the more senior attorneys. The department eventually hired several Fellows into permanent positions, so program also served as a way to train and ‘test-out’ employees before they were hired. In 2004 the department had four former Fellows on its staff. This excellent practice comes from Rees Morrison, Law Department Administrators: Lessons from Leaders (Hildebrandt Inst. 2004) at 5.

The Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 85, March 2007 at 115, article on human capital management practices has spawned several posts (See my posts of May 11, 2007 with the first 9 practices and May 28, 2007 with the final 14; as well as June 10, 2007 on Leadership; June 11, 2007 on Employee Engagement; and June 14, 2007 on Knowledge Accessibility.). Here are my references and comments on the practices under category four, “Workforce Optimization”:

1. Processes: “Work processes are well-defined, and training is effective” (See my posts of Feb. 6, 2007 with references cited about processes; and March 11, 2007 on initiatives compared to processes.).

2. Conditions: “Working conditions support high performance” (See my post of June 5, 2007 on architectural layout and references cited.).

According to some research, the youth of America exhibit higher levels of narcissism, “a positive and inflated view of the self,” than do their elders. Younger lawyers joining law departments may well be more self-centered than lawyers of previous generations, if we extrapolate from comments in Atlantic, Vol. 300, July/Aug. 2007 at 30. A 40-question survey called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory places those who take it on a scale of narcissism.

Full-of-themselves lawyers may demand more training, greater responsibility, and faster development (See my post of June 24, 2007 on high-potential lawyer programs.). They may bluster about titles, complain about bonuses, and demand the best office space. It’s hard to manage overweening egos.