TM - January 2008 - (Page 50)

insight by Kellye Whitney Dreier, Stein & Kahan LLP: Using Talent Strategy to Bring Back the Law Profession Not many law firms actively profess to care more about providing excellent client service than tallying up billable hours. So, it might take a moment to imagine members of a legal workforce so content they rarely leave to join the competition. In this imaginary law firm, diversity is so much a part of the organization’s day-to-day talent activity that when a newspaper called up to ask about its impressive diversity program, management said, “What diversity program?” But wait. This law firm exists. Stanton “Larry” Stein, partner and head of the entertainment and media department at Dreier, Stein & Kahan LLP , said the aforementioned scenario is just part of the firm’s work model for its roughly 400 lawyers and personnel in Los Angeles, New York and Connecticut. Our concept is exactly the opposite. We want to bring the practice of law back to a profession, not a business. Therefore, we have as many partners as we do associates. It’s our expectation that every associate can become a partner. Not everyone does, because everyone doesn’t live up to their expectation, but the vast majority of them will become partners. As a result, we must mentor them, care for them psychologically, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We do a lot of different things, like supply free lunch to all the lawyers every day so they can spend time together. We pay for gym memberships so they can exercise. We insist all associates and partners participate in public interest work. All of our partners have to be on the board of directors of some form of foundation or charitable, public service organization. We believe that you can have a midsize law firm and supply the needs of most of the kinds of clients we want to service. First, you have to be familiar with what’s happening in the legal community. We’re the antithesis of what all the big firms are doing now. In the legal community, there is a consolidation of firms that become national and even international, with offices in sometimes 10 or 12 different cities. They’re large conglomerate organizations consisting of 3,000 lawyers or more. Those are structured very much like a business, and not a profession. They hire 100 young associates with the expectation that only two or so will make equity partner, because the only ones that make equity partner are the ones who generate substantial business. Because they’re not going to be partners, most of those large firms don’t particularly care about mentoring or training these lawyers, because if you’re only going to keep two out of a hundred, it’s not cost-effective. They don’t care about their mental health, their personal relationships, physical health. It’s very much a business, and the individual associates are treated as widgets. You make money off the youngest people working very hard, very long hours, and all of the money goes upward. TM: Stein: Describe your company’s approach to talent management. TM: How have your talent management processes affected workforce performance? Stein: Exceptionally well. The problem with lawyers today in the big firms is they go there, they work for a couple of years to pay off their debts in law school, and then they leave. The unfortunate part is they not only leave those big firms, they leave the practice of law because they find the experience so unpleasant. The demands are so great, and there’s no mentoring, no interpersonal relationships. They find it devastating. No associate of ours in 30 years has ever gone from our firm to another law firm. They’ve gone to do different things with their lives, but they’ve never said, ‘I don’t like practicing with you. I want to go practice with someone else.’ Also, the number of students who obtain positions with us is remarkable. We have a small recruitment program, but mainly our recruitment comes from the exposure of our lawyers. For 50 January 2008 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - January 2008

TM - January 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Learning Connections: Working With Those People Leading Edge: Hub Caps for a Buggy Human Performance: Hawthorne Effect Revisited Beyond Affirmative Action: The Changing Face of Recruitment Assessment Centers in Talent Management: Strategies, Use and Value Nontraditional Benefits- How to Hook the Best Talent Intersection of Web 2.0 and Talent Management Cross-Training for Workforce Agility Mapping Talent Among Younger Workers Dashboard: Using Personality Data to Identify and Develop High-Potential Leaders Application: Shaffer Title Uses Myers-Briggs to Develop Common Corporate Language, Jump-Start Growth Insight: Dreier, Stein & Kahan LLP: Using Strategy to Bring Back the Law Profession Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Stop in the Name of Leadership

TM - January 2008

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