Lexpert Magazine

LEXPERT MAGAZINE | APRIL 2016 65 | COLUMNS | MARKETING Heather Suttie is a legal marketing and business development consultant. She works with firms rang- ing from global to solo, BigLaw to NewLaw. Reach her at (416) 964-9607 or visit www.heathersuttie. BY HEATHER SUTTIE shrinking, there won't be 40 years of tradi- tional legal work le for others. Market erosion with clients remaining seated on their wallets or spending judi- ciously on outside firms is another piece of the puzzle. And there are more competitors for the legal spend, including bulked up in- house teams and legal and non-legal service providers capable of reducing costs while improving efficiency with transparency that helps build client confidence and trust. Over the past six months, there have been more lawyers than ever speaking to me about their distrust, disinterest and gen- eral lack of engagement with their firms. Discontent covers a range of talent, such as juniors in a global firm who are not inter- ested in becoming partners, won't welcome an approach, and would turn down an of- fer if one were presented. Other examples include senior associates at brand-name firms starting solo practices in order to have better control over their lives and a say in the work they do, and partners seeking business-development coaching because they either need to bulk up their billables or are considering jumping ship. While changing career paths isn't new, there are now more options and markets for lawyers and lawyering. Some of the most successful non-traditional firms and service providers have been started by people who are now in their 30s and 40s, and were as- sociates – some on the cusp of partnership – but took a different tack. One was Peter Carayiannis, who spent seven years with the former Gowling Laf- leur Henderson LLP (now Gowling WLG) and another 10 years as an embedded cor- porate counsel working alongside a number of clients before founding Conduit Law Professional Corp. in 2012. With a future- is-forward perspective, he says, "e chal- lenge and opportunity for law firm leader- ship is to create agile organizations that can be responsive to clients." SOFT SKILLS AND HARD NUMBERS Culture and communications are critical factors in keeping clients and talent happy. Law firms are not usually good at nurturing either and need to get good fast. A positive culture is everything, since people are apt to remain in an environment where they're valued, respected and invited to contrib- ute. A toxic culture gets what it deserves. Constant communication keeps a positive culture alive. Conveyed as client stories and feedback, wins, losses, internal and legal in- dustry news, communication helps inform people and form opinions. Understanding that traditional law firm growth is likely to be slow from now on means it must be talked about in terms oth- er than head count. Only law firms measure growth in part by the number of lawyers on their rosters. e rest of the business world measures growth by money, so firms that want to be around in the future and at- tractive to talent must be able to talk about financials. As Carayiannis observes, "e lawyers and law firm leadership teams that are up to the challenge, the teams that can seize these opportunities, those who can re- invent their organizations, will be the next generation of leaders." e days are gone for the take-it-or-leave- it attitude that, while you may have family, friends and interests outside of work, the firm comes first. As the legal industry be- comes more businesslike, leaders at success- ful law firms must be dedicated, profession- ally trained management personnel who understand that "P" stands for both people and profit. The upshot of a hollowing out of people and profits in legal services A HOLLOWING OUT of talent is creat- ing a quiet crisis in the legal market. Alter- ing attitudes and stalling career paths of early and mid-career lawyers are causing a shi that's affecting how traditional law firms operate and market themselves. Much has been said about the too-ma- ny-lawyers "talent jam." Essentially, this is happening due to the increasing number of students entering law school who are then unable to find articling positions at law firms, along with associates being re- stricted from entry to partnership because senior lawyers are either reluctant or reti- cent to retire. Increasingly, however, associates are steering clear of partnerships at traditional law firms. And that's causing an even big- ger problem and raising a bigger question — how is the legal industry, profession and culture going to have to change if firms don't want to lose out on talent along with the clients for whom they work? ECONOMICS AND EROSION ere are a couple of key factors at play: economics and erosion. In December 2015, Citi Private Bank reported that US law firms experienced a half-per-cent pro- ductivity decline because lawyers have less to do. e bank predicted little change for 2016. While there is no Canadian data, there are observations from senior partners in national Canadian firms who say they will have practised 40 years by the time they retire, but because the legal market is Less than Attractive PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

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