Mentoring. Mind the gap
| Author | Susan Smith Blakely |
| Pages | 30-32 |
MENTORING
Mind the Gap
Are you harnessing your millennial power?
BY SUSAN SMITH BLAKELY
How much are you thinking
about millennials? If your
answer is “not much,” you
are not paying attention to
business.
Millennials are the largest generation
in the U.S. labor force, so boomer and
Generation X workers had better learn
how to effectively integrate them into
their businesses. And that is especially
important for law rms. The power of
millennial lawyers is huge—by virtue of
numbers alone.
Most of the people I talk to at
management levels in BigLaw report
that the issues of millennial lawyers are
denitely on their minds. But it is not
always clear whether that is because
they are annoyed at the behaviors and
attitudes of millennial lawyers or be-
cause they are in problem-solving mode.
The legal profession is facing a com-
plex generational divide with the advent
of millennial lawyers. And questions of
how to motivate and foster leadership
in a generation with values that differ
signicantly from those of immedi-
ate-past generations should keep law
rm leaders up at night.
A shifting balance
In my work, I speak at law schools, law
rms and law organizations throughout
the country, and the values conversation
is a constant theme. One thing that I
have come to know about millennial
lawyers is that they are very serious
about their lifestyle preferences, and
they will bet their futures on them.
Millennial lawyers know that boom-
er and Generation X lawyers need them
in the profession to take our rms into
the future. They know that the boomer
lawyers are retiring and that there are
too few Generation X lawyers to pick
up all the slack. These young lawyers
know they are the hope for law rm
succession plans.
Millennial lawyers have learned to
travel light, and they will vote with
their feet. They are not likely to be
constrained by the “golden handcuffs”
of huge mortgages and consumer debt
because they know that kind of baggage
reduces their mobility, their career
choices and their ultimate happiness.
If the profession fails them, they will
walk. It is that simple.
That is the kind of power that mil-
edited by
BLAIR CHAVIS & LIANE JACKSON
blair.chavis@americanbar.org
liane.jackson@americanbar.org
Photo by Shutterstock
Practice Matters
ABA JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2019
30
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