How do law firms attract and retain talent? Guy Clapperton explains
What do the following items have in common? Four-day weeks, alternatives to partnership, talks from Lynne Truss, on-site student groups, relocation, kayaking, a private cinema, cycle loans and community work. The answer is that they are means used by law firms to attract the best employees to their organisations.
These are approaches that contrast dramatically with much of the public perception about what law firms are and what they do. The classic picture of the overworked lawyer struggling to reach partnership, after which the strain really starts to tell; the client who thinks he more or less owns the individual lawyer assigned to his case; the long hours culture; and the clichéd mighty dollar might not be things of the past just yet, but they are starting to recede into the background.
UNDERLYING TREND
It’s instructive to look at the underlying trend that’s causing this step change as it has a marked bearing on the methods used to recruit staff to legal firms. The market for legal service providers has
