From Georgetown Law: Career Paths and Labor Markets

Part of our coverage of “Law Firm Evolution:  Brave New World or Business As Usual?”, a conference held March 21-23, 2010 by the Georgetown Center for the Study of the Legal Profession.  For all our posts on the conference click here.

Reported by:   Gregory P Bufithis, Esq.     Founder, ThePosseList.com and ProjectCounsel.com

One of the Lunch Roundtable events featured a discussion on the future realities of career paths and labor markets in the legal industry, with the focus on law firms.

The panelists included Scott Westfahl (Director of Professional Development, Goodwin Proctor), Bruce McLean (Partner and Chairman, Akin Gump) and Deborah Epstein Henry (Founder and President of Flex-Time Lawyers LLC).

Serving as moderator (and a panelist) was Cynthia Fuchs Epstein (Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York).

Bottom line:  the war for talent will return and law firms need to be on the cutting edge of talent management and new ways to work.   Culture and environment will become more important for firms to distinguish themselves and compensation will be less of an enticement to recruit or retain talent.   The industry is changing and that means lawyers’ views of their career paths need to change as well.   The industry and the profession has an obligation to help those in the profession, but this is a situation where we are in an environment that is so radically different than the past, lawyers have to take ground-level responsibility for where they are going.   

Deborah Epstein Henry provided us with some interesting information regarding the mismatch of career paths, labor markets and law firm structure:

1.  Generational Shifts –Different Needs and the Talent Gap

-Boomers (76 million born 1946–1964)

-Comprise 70% of law firm partners

-“Gen X” (46 million born 1965–1980)

-Face work/life issues on both ends (aging parents & young children)

-“Gen Y” (80 million born 1980–2000)

-Different expectations in how they will work

-2008 NYU Law Survey, male & female students’ biggest concern (72% of men & 76% of women were “very” or “extremely” worried about work/life balance

2.  Current Billable Hour Model Unsustainable

-Attrition in good economic times

-78% of law firm lawyers leave by their 5thyear

-Long hours are an important factor in why lawyers leave

-Layoffs in down market

– According to Law Shucks, about 5,000 lawyers were laid off at 138 firms last year

-Legal sector has lost 42,700 jobs since 12/08 –1/10

3.  Acute Work/Life Challenges Facing Female Attorneys

-Women have comprised 40-50% of law school graduating classes for 25 years yet they comprise only 16% of equity partners

-42% of women lawyers leave, independent of maternity leave

4.  Boomers’ Retirement and the Talent Gap

-At 69% of firms, 20 –39% of equity partners are 50 or older

– At 23 % of firms, more than 40% of equity partners are 50 or older

You can find more facts and figures and review Debbie Epstein Henry’s complete PowerPoint on “Career Paths and Labor Markets” by clicking here.

Both Scott Westfahl and Bruce McLean picked up on the issue of  “the industry and the profession having an obligation to help those in the profession.”  Because what we are talking about here is human capital:  the education and experience that make people more productive.  The skills they so acquire are “human capital” and explains why some firms do better, earn more than others.  Firms need to support a host of productivity-enhancing benefits.  Whether firms will have the best response to the demographic challenges facing them remains to be seen.

And there will be a knock-on effect: hiring efficiencies will be critical for talent management, and that includes new ways to test law students, such as legal writing acumen, to get a more qualified pool who will stay with the firm over the long term.  Once hired, training is vital for success, such as competency models aligned with training professional skills, teaching project management skills, working in teams such as problem-solving workshops.   Because clients want experienced lawyers who can do work more efficiently, there will be a greater demand for career associates and staff attorneys.

We had the opportunity to do video interviews with two of the panelists.

Deborah Epstein Henry is the Founder and President of Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, a national consulting firm advising law firms, corporations and lawyers on work/life balance and the retention and promotion of women attorneys.  She is trained as a commercial litigator but the principal focus of her time today is as a consultant. She focuses on the issues of work/life balance and attorney retention, with a particular emphasis on retaining and promoting women lawyers.  For some of her other writings click here and click here.   In this interview she talks about how to get ahead in the new era and the mismatch between talent and career paths and the acute challenges facing women:

Cynthia Fuchs Epstein is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is known for her studies of gender and work, particularly women in the legal profession. She has also written critical analyses of theories and research on gender inequality.  In this interview she spoke about what is the gender composition of the talent pool,  why the track for leadership and partnership is different for women, and more: