Vol. 28, No. 2 #3 (April 2005). DRAINMAKERS: Dealing with Under-Productive Partners.

• Author: By Ed Wesemann

Wyoming Bar Journal

2005.

Vol. 28, No. 2 #3 (April 2005).

DRAINMAKERS: Dealing with Under-Productive Partners

WYOMING LAWYERApril 2005/Vol. XXVIII, No. 2DRAINMAKERS: Dealing with Under-Productive PartnersBy Ed Wesemann

Every law firm has a different name for their problem partners-- "performance challenged," "retired without telling anyone," "revenue impaired." Whatever they are called, partners who are performing below, often way below, firm standards are at the top of the managing partner's "to do" list in just about every large law firm in the world. Indeed, dealing with unproductive partners is often such a controversial and culturally challenging issue for firms that it clouds management judgment on a variety of other issues that may be of greater significance. Unproductive partners is not a particularly new problem. Dealing with partners who ran out of steam mid-career was probably on the agenda of the first chambers meeting after the signing of the Magna Carta. But only recently did it became the front burner issue it is today. In part its new priority may be because it was considered ungentlemanly to discuss individual partners until new versions of time and billing software generated statistical reports that highlighted the problems. Certainly the drive for profitability in law firms didn't truly emerge until the American Lawyer in the U.S. (and similar publications in other countries) began publishing comparative law firm profits per partner. And, despite all this publicity, we still witness frequent debates in firms about whether the practice of law is a profession or a business.

Awareness begs the question of why law firms have this problem to begin with. And there are some highly identifiable causes.

Partner tenure. For many lawyers the only form of organizations with which they have first hand personal experiences are universities. It's not surprising, therefore, that no businesses other than law firms organize themselves into "departments" that are run by "chairs." When lawyers created their partnership structures they gave each other effective tenure by making it virtually impossible to ever get enough votes to remove a partner. Take away a firm's effective power to remove a partner and you remove a partners' ultimate performance accountability.

Collapsing Practices. The rapidity with which practices...