Trends in human capital management in the legal industry

In the framework of the IP WEEK of the Dominican Association of Intellectual Property, we had the honor of participating in this interesting dialogue. Part of the presentations is transcribed below:

Angelina, we would love to hear about your experience managing a team with great generational diversity. We know that 3 or 4 generations coexist at Russin Vecchi, even in decision-making positions. What could you say are the main challenges and what would you say are the greatest advantages of managing so many generations in the same organization.

First, I would like to thank Orieta Blanco and Monika Fiallo Paradas for having invited me to share with the ADOPI membership my experiences in managing law firms, particularly trends in talent management.

The value of a multidisciplinary team and its strength in decision-making is because plans are evaluated from different perspectives. For the same reason, to assess the same situation from different perspectives, a legal matter is sometimes shared between different practice areas. The strength of a team comes from its diversity. I understand that respect and inclusion for us have been the perfect combination. In the office, we have 5 generations working together and 4 as part of the firm's administrative committee. The founding partners or senior lawyers are usually professors of the young lawyers, their mentors, and young people look up to as a model. They have seen them appear on television, radio, they have learned from their books, they have studied their jurisprudence, they have enormous respect and appreciation for them. That is why attracting a junior attorney, even an attorney with some experience, is relatively easy at a law firm. Developing and retaining them to feel committed to reaching their full potential in the same office …… can be challenging. Leaders must understand and adapt to the characteristics of each generation. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. some important points to consider are the personality of the lawyers themselves, the culture of the country, the culture of the firm, trainings with the topics of diversity and inclusion. As the expectations of human talents changed, the management techniques and models have changed and adapted accordingly, but one thing remains the same: it is to maintain trust between the teams and their members, as well as the channels, the two-way communication. Transparency and honesty. No hidden agendas. Young lawyers, the generation Z that is entering the labor market can benefit enormously from the experience, knowledge, principles, and values ​​transmitted by traditionalists, baby boomers, or generation X, while we, elderly generations, remain eternally young because we must educate ourselves continuously to stay at the forefront not only with technical knowledge but also digital and other soft skills, such as leadership skills, communication, emotional intelligence, to lead with example. The millennials and generation z then will feel motivated to follow us. Challenges are always there, but a family stays together if there is respect and commitment or the decision to stay together. I see work as a marriage, half of the problems are solved with good communication. If there is a decision to stay together, then the challenges can overcome.

Continuing in line with this, could you tell us about how was the technological adaptation of those older generations when we were all forced to work from home? Did you notice any advantage in this regard in younger generations?

The truth is that March 2020 was a challenge in every way. In addition to the fact that we had to adapt to the idea that we are in a pandemic and that we can lose our loved ones, in addition to the fact that we had to prevent teams from facing “burnout” or work exhaustion, we also had to adapt to manage talents in the digital environment. The reality of our young people who leave the country's universities, even being generation Z, is that unfortunately, they are not prepared to use technology looking at their technical preparation, as lawyers. Then we are left with the personal interest that each talent may have or, within the organizations, to do the so-called “upskilling” or “reskilling”. March 2020 was not easy even for millennials, now think of a baby boomer or a traditionalist. But when there is confidence and the courage to recognize weaknesses and why not, ask for help, the entire team comes to the rescue because we are one before our clients. We collaborate internally to compete externally. But at an administrative level, in a matter of hours, we also prepared the instructions for the whole team to learn how to use the team's platform and we also organized training in two different groups to ensure that all the staff can attend due to the commitments. In other words, it was a whole firm team effort, and it has paid off.

I know that it is not easy for a professional from another area to work with lawyers and above all to understand the particularities of our practice and business. From your perspectives and experiences, what would you say are the main challenges to achieve effective talent management among lawyers? What has worked in your respective organizations?

About 10+ years ago I attended the ALA (Association of Legal Administrators) conference and a session lead by Dr. Larry Richard. He comes from a family of lawyers and judges, he was a litigation lawyer for almost 10 years, until one day in the 80s he realized that he didn’t want to continue practicing law and he decided to study psychology. His Ph.D. was an analysis of the personality characteristics of lawyers. Lawyers have certain characteristics that are out of the ordinary patterns. That means, they are similar to each other as a group but different from the rest of the world. These atypical or extreme characteristics make them excellent lawyers, but at the same time it prevents them from developing other very necessary characteristics in today's organizations, those are leadership, innovation, teamwork, coaching, mentoring, emotional intelligence.

For me, having attended that educational session helped me a lot to understand certain behaviors and learn to understand and effectively manage talents. I am going to mention some characteristics that are not unfamiliar for this group:

Autonomy: Lawyers are independent professionals, therefore, individualists, do not like to be controlled by someone, nor do they accept being told what to do. The very fact of being within the firm and having to share control with other partners creates great challenges if they do not have, or developed, other soft skills. For this reason, the resistance to change is so marked within the group, but we are living in times of continuous change, therefore, the feeling that they are no longer in control of the situation creates even greater tensions and challenges.

Abstract thinking is another characteristic and the reason why they have chosen to study law because they are drawn to challenges, analysis, and problem-solving. Something good, in excess, nevertheless, like analysis, if we stay paralyzed analyzing and there is no effective decision-making, can be detrimental to business. Today's organizations are agile, and those capable of adapting to changes in fast times survive.

Urgency or impatience helps them a lot when it comes to managing legal matters. They seek results and require them to be fast. Very marked characteristic for the leading law firms. In leadership positions, however, there must be a balance: the other team members have to understand the reason for a plan or an action and be in agreement. To implement something, we must have the support of senior management and that everyone is committed to it.

Another trait is that they lack social characteristics: they are regularly private and closed people. They can be extremely funny in public but they try not to create emotional connections. The average of this characteristic in the case of lawyers is 12%, compared to 50% for the rest of the population. It is important to work on emotional connections and empathy.

Another very marked characteristic as a profession and essential for them to be good lawyers: distrustful or skeptical, they regularly assume negative things, reach certain conclusions thinking that there may be hidden agendas or that something may go wrong. That one is also the characteristics of millennials, so it does not help in your firms, or rather eliminates the possibilities of innovation and leadership.

In conclusion, I believe that everything is two-way, we all learn from each other to live together better.

We know that Russin Vecchi has partners and managing partner who started at the firm as paralegals and have developed their professional carrier within the firm, something to be very proud of. What do you think have been the main factors that have allowed them to achieve that loyalty over the years? And in line with the same, do you have succession plans? If you can tell us briefly about it, I think it is a topic of great interest and very important to consider in every firm.

RVHB has had the Formal Career Plan for many years. It has been changing to adapt to the times and has evolved like everything else. Each step is defined, and the team is aware of what follows and they can monitor their achievements over time. We have objective indicators that help to monitor factors of interest to the firm: customer service (satisfaction and retention), learning and growth, and financial indicators (which are not just billing hours). In addition, the active role of developing talents is played by partners and/or senior associates: empowerment, coaching, and mentoring are some management development techniques that apply to lawyers.

Now, as I pointed out a few moments ago, everything is two-way, so career plans occur in parallel with succession plans. Because a succession plan implies leadership transition within the organization. For that to be possible, it is required the collaboration of predecessors and successors, sometimes, nevertheless, is not something that is easily achieved unless the leaders are committed to the institution. But it is not impossible either and the benefits are innumerable. Our managing partner joined the firm 37 years ago as a paralegal. Monika, the current president of ADOPI, also entered the firm as a paralegal and I will not mention how long ago, but I will mention that we have known each other the last 16 years that I have at the firm (and between us she entered before me). But also, Dra. Rosa Campillo was the founder of ADOPI. And some may remember, in 2000, Lic. Santoni assumed the position of managing partner of the firm, almost 15 years before the death of Dr. Luis Heredia Bonetti, and I can continue giving examples. It all depends on the strategic vision of your organization's leaders. We do not have a formal succession plan, but we are an institution and as such we have the three pillars of intellectual capital: we have structures: corporate governance, job descriptions, manuals, policies, processes defined and updated according to changes in the environment. We have relational capital and, most importantly, our intellectual capital is made up of committed leaders who, like good parents, teach their children to find their path to success. And we have a very strong culture of knowledge management, growth, and continuous innovation.

Planning, organizing, and preparing are critical to the success and survival of any organization, and law firms are no exception. Not to feel bad, only 12% of law firms have a succession plan as part of corporate governance. And something to worry about: 70% of law firms do not survive their founding partners.

"Let the good business of today not prevent us from the good business of tomorrow," said Peter Drucker, considered the father of modern administration, author of more than 35 books, curiously, a lawyer.

By way of conclusion, what could tell us about the key factors to achieve an effective application of current trends in human capital management and the efforts that every firm must implement so that success in human management is sustainable over time...

To answer this question, I would like to first define what those trends are: The first step, and especially in light of the changes around the pandemic would be to define the strategic direction of your office/firm. If your firm has more than one partner, remember that once the direction is defined, the commitment of one is the commitment of all. We must have the firm's conviction and the commitment of all leaders to manage any change and especially change in the culture of an organization.

Good management begins with recruitment and selection according to the strategic direction. The onboarding process is extremely important: take the time to create that first pleasant and unforgettable experience. Remember the importance of measuring. Even more important of climate surveys is the process of communicating the results and the work plan in response. Not giving feedback is like ignoring. Incorporate the so-called 'tailored benefits', according to the individual needs or expectations of each employee. Differentiate intrinsic motivators from external or extrinsic factors. Meaningful work, recognition, responsibility, opportunity to achieve something significant, empowerment in decision-making, and demonstrating how important that person is for the institution are all motivators. Now the extrinsic factors are salary, working conditions, policies and administration, supervision, status, and security. We notice the absence of extrinsic factors because we take those for granted and that can affect the motivators. Also, something to pay attention to, with the pandemic, the female gender has had to assume roles as educators, therefore, we must be empathetic. Job burnout, if recognized must be address quickly. Leaders must dedicate time to promote and help the growth of their team members, as well as their well-being. It is expected from them to inspire confidence and to be transparent. That promotes teamwork. The ritual of individual performance evaluations, once a year, is disappearing, to be replaced with indicators. Compensations are consistent with the performance of the firm as a whole and/or the teams. Telecommuting is here to stay and with a culture that emphasizes autonomy, flexibility, and cooperation to achieve goals. We have to get to know generation z and that social responsibility plans are part of the new retention strategies. Consider using digital platforms to incorporate into management subsystems: LinkedIn for recruitment processes, as well its e-Learning platform for training or the IBM Skills Academy. If the culture of the firm allows it, incorporate a comprehensive management software: we have CRM for clients, our internal clients are our collaborators and we owe them the same attention.

Incorporating part of those benefits would be of great benefit. Companies are doing it and it’s giving them results. Why law firms would not.

Angelina Angelov