Law firms now accept they are businesses like any other. But they still structure their Graduate Training programme as though nothing has changed. Is this sustainable when they need to create the leaders of the future as well as the best lawyers?
Graduates in other sectors join a training programme to gain essential leadership skills so they can become the leaders of the future. They move roles and companies to gain valuable experience. Yet most Managing Partners I speak to didn’t have that experience and their time in the role is often time limited. Indeed, having gained valuable experience in this key leadership role very few move on to lead new law firms or mentor the next generation of leaders.
Is this a sustainable model as law firms get bigger and more complex and clients get more demanding? I will be exploring this theme in my next few posts and suggesting some answers.
The Existing Law Firm Approach
The view of Graduate Training inside law firms looks very different to other sectors. A typical law firm pitch to graduates is all about learning to be a great lawyer as this quote from a Magic Circle firm shows: “Our Training Contract will transform you from a talented beginner to a professional lawyer." There’s nothing wrong with being a great lawyer but what about everything else?
Maybe this is a function of size. Law firms may still be too small to create more sophisticated and rounded training programmes. But I think it is more than this. We can see that from the language of law firms. They still talk about “lawyers” and “non lawyers.” "Fee earners" and "support staff". That shows what skills law firms think are important.
Yet it is the “non lawyers” in most other businesses that have the essential skills for growth, innovation and improved productivity. Skills such as Sales & Marketing, Strategic HR, Finance, and Operational Management. These skills are learned through rounded training programmes and it is no coincidence that it is these skills that are found around the table of the Boards in most companies.
In law firms, however, “non lawyers” usually perform these roles as "support" or "back office" functions and lawyers, who generally have no formal training or expertise in these areas, occupy the leadership roles. That has worked so far but law firms are becoming bigger and more complex, and buyers of legal services more demanding, so it is unlikely to be sustainable in future.
I believe, therefore, that law firms need to think about their Graduate Training and career development programmes very differently.
In my next post I will explore how other industry sectors approach Graduate Training and what law firms can learn from them to create the leaders for the future.
If you would like to learn more about any of the issues in this article, please contact me