The Legal Whiteboard

Empirical Evidence of Competencies Necessary for Advancement in Law Firms

For those trying to better understand how legal education can better prepare law students for the world that awaits them, I would encourage you to take a look at the draft article my colleague, Neil Hamilton, Director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, recently posted on SSRN. The article is entitled Law-Firm Competency Models and Student Professional Success: Building on a Foundation of Professional Formation/Professionalism. Here is some of the description from the abstract:

A law student who understands legal employer competency models can differentiate him or herself from other graduates by using the three years of law school to develop (and to create supporting evidence to demonstrate) specific competencies beyond just knowledge of doctrinal law, legal analysis, and some written and oral communication skills. . . .

In Part I below, this essay analyzes all available empirical research on the values, virtues, capacities and skills in law firm competency models that define the competencies of the most effective and successful lawyers. Part II examines empirical evidence on the competencies that clients evaluate. Part III evaluates the competencies that make the most difference in fast-track associate and partnership promotions. These data and analyses lead to several bold propositions developed in Part IV:

1. Law students and legal educators should identify and understand the values, virtues, capacities and skills (the competencies) of highly effective and successful lawyers in different types of practice (one major example is law firm competency models analyzed below in Part I);

2. Each student should use all three years of experiences both inside and outside of law school (including the required and elective curriculum, extracurricular activities, and paid or pro bono work experiences) to develop and be able to demonstrate evidence of the competencies that legal employers and clients want in the student’s area of employment interest;

3. Law schools should develop a competency-based curriculum that helps each student develop and be able to demonstrate the competencies that legal employers and clients want; and

4. Both law students and law schools should understand that the values, virtues, capacities and skills of professional formation (professionalism) are the foundation for excellence at all of the competencies of an effective and successful lawyer.

The article presents far more useful information than can be summarized here, and different readers may be struck by different things discussed in the article. One of the most significant takeaways for me, however, is the convergence around an array of competencies frequently not taught in law school. The article analyzes competency models used to assess associate development at 14 medium to large law firms in the Twin Cities and compares that with some other literature on competencies clients look for in attorneys. The analysis demonstrates that in addition to traditionally understood technical skills – legal analysis, oral and written communication, and knowledge of the law – there is significant convergence around several competencies frequently not taught in law school – 1) Ability to initiate and maintain strong work and team relationships; 2) Good judgment/common sense/problem-solving; 3) Business development/marketing/client retention; 4) Project management including high quality, efficiency, and timeliness; 5) Dedication to client service/responsive to client; and 6) Initiative/ambition/drive/strong work ethic.

Whether law schools are going to be able to find efficient ways to offer students opportunities to develop these competencies, it is imperative that we make our students aware that they need to be developing these competencies to give themselves the greatest likelihood of professional success.

[posted by Jerry Organ]

A Blueprint for Change

Several months ago I wrote a book review of Brian Tamanaha's important book, Failing Law Schools.  In the last paragraph, I wrote:

Brian discusses the bleak employment prospects of law schools, but (through no fault of his own) understates the nature of the structural change that is occurring in the U.S. and global market for legal services.  In Part II, I will write about some logical next steps for law schools looking to get ahead of the coming tsunami.

I tried to write Part II, but a blog post just was not up to the task.  Further, I sensed that my colleagues were in no mood for half-baked solutions. There has been enormous criticism of legal education on the blogs and in the media, but very little in the way of detailed prescriptions to improve the situation.  I felt an obligation to back off on the criticism and focus on solutions.  So, in essence, Part II of my Tamanaha review became an article.

I just posted to SSRN an article entitled "A Blueprint for Change" forthcoming in the Pepperdine Law Review.  It is both a diagnosis and a proposed solution -- a solution I am actively pursuing. Here is the abstract:

This Article discusses the financial viability of law schools in the face of massive structural changes now occurring within the legal industry. It then offers a blueprint for change – a realistic way for law schools to retool themselves in an attempt to provide our students with high quality professional employment in a rapidly changing world. Because no institution can instantaneously reinvent itself, a key element of my proposal is the “12% solution.” Approximately 12% of faculty members take the lead on building a competency-based curriculum that is designed to accelerate the development of valuable skills and behaviors prized by both legal and nonlegal employers. For a variety of practical reasons, successful implementation of the blueprint requires law schools to band together in consortia. The goal of these initiatives needs to be the creation and implementation of a world-class professional education in which our graduates consistently and measurably outperform graduates from traditional J.D. programs.

I have a large backlog of shorter articles and analyses that I have not posted because I wanted my own detailed solution in the public domain.   I hope to tie all of these ideas together over the coming weeks.

Thank you, Brian Tamanaha, for writing an book that required me to think in terms of solutions.

[posted by Bill Henderson]

Encouraging Data on Law Firm Diversity

Here is some welcomed good news for the legal industry--we now have data showing diverse lawyers, within certain large and important legal markets, ascending to law firm partnership in significant numbers.  Let me be clear.  I am reporting progress here, not perfection.  But the progress provides key insights on how to further reduce the partnership diversity gap.

The research, which I just published in the NALP Bulletin (see "Diversity by the Numbers," July 2012), is based on the 2005-06 edition of the NALP Directory of Legal Employers. The NALP Directory is a city-by-city guide for several hundred law firms that  participate in the on-campus interview (OCI) process.  This information includes a breakdown of lawyers by firm, branch office, title, and race/gender/GLBT status.  (See full article for overview data.)

The aggregate-level statistics are not every encouraging--less than 5% of partners at these corporate firms are minority.  These are the type of bleak statistics that frame the diversity discussion.  Yet, when the data are disaggregated, we see racial subgroup making substantial partnership inroads in specific geographic markets.  For African-Americans, it is Atlanta and Washington, DC; for Asians, it is L.A., San Francisco, and Pacific Northwest/Rocky Mountain region; for Hispanics, it is Houston, Dallas, Miami and L.A.  Further, these partnerships disproportionately in AmLaw 200 firms.

The map and table below expresses these geographic variations using a location quotient methodology.

(Note: CSA means "Consolidated Statistical Area", a geographic area defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Among other things, CSAs are very large metropolitan area labor markets.)

In the map above, the emphasis on large metropolitan areas is deliberate.  Among the 600+ law firm in the 2005-06 Directory, 64.2% of their attorneys worked in the top 10 metropolitan markets; these same markets also accounted for 74.8% of hiring at the NALP firms.

A Location Quotient (LQ) is a tool for identifying relative surpluses or shortages of an economic activity within specific locations.  If, for example, the percentage of female partners in New York City is the same as the entire US market, the location quotient for female partners would be 1.00.  In fact, the LQ for female partners in New York City is .87.  This means that are 13% fewer female parters in New York City relative to the total base of New York City partners.  Likewise, the LQ for African American partners in Atlanta is 2.67.  This means that there are 167% more African American partners in Atlanta relative to the total Atlanta partnership base. Cells in Yellow are underrepresented by more than 10%; cells in blue are overrepresented by more than 10%.

The implication of this analysis is that significant diversity tends to exist in pockets that follow distinctive demographic patterns.  These significant pockets rebut the pessimistic view, held by some, that minority partners lack the skills and ability to be successful in large corporate law firms.  Quite the opposite is true -- minority lawyers' willingness to enter a market and persist at a firm is likely influenced by number of people from the same minority group who have ascended to the partner level.  If you are a African American lawyer, the wind is at your back in DC or Altanta, but in many branch offices in Dallas, Phoenix or Boston you will be breaking barriers.

This brings up the issue of pipeline, which is a precursor to any hoped for progress on partner diversity. 

To look at pipeline-to-partner issues, I created separate regression models to predict the % minority associates within a law office (not the firm as whole).  I ran the model separate for African American, Asians, Hispanics, GLBT and females. Each factor below makes an independent contribution to a larger pipeline of diverse associates.

• Geography matters.  Diverse associates are disproportionally going to the same market where their same subgroup has been successful becoming partner.  African Americans to Atlanta and DC; Asians to the west coast; Hispanics to the major markets in the Southeast and Southwest.
• Large Firms.  Large firms are more successful recruiting diverse associates. This could be salary, prestige, recruitng resources.
• Large Offices.  Bigger branch offices are more successful.  This could be recruiting resources or a more appealing variety of practice areas.
• % of Diverse Partners.  This is the critical factor -- for every category, % of partners is associates with higher % of associates.  This is independent of size and geography!  Further, there is zero crossover effect. 

Quoting from the full article, "The takeaway from the above analysis is both simple and frustrating.  We would have more African American (or Hispanic or Asian or Female or GLBT) associates if only we had more African-American (or Hispanic or Asian or Female or GLBT) partners.  But getting more diverse partners will be slow going until we become better at retaining, rather than just recruiting, diverse associates.  The first generation of diverse lawyers will, by definition, not have the benefit of diverse mentors.  And in many firms, or at least branch offices, the first generation has not yet arrived."

I am really grateful to NALP for giving me access to this unique dataset.  It caused me to think much more deeply on how lawyer development can be used to create greater diversity in the huge number of branch offices where there is no critical mass of diverse partners.  It short, it is all about creating a competency model and evaluation system--i.e., a roadmap--that makes the path to partnership more explicit.  Why am I bullish on our ability to make progress on partnership diversity?  Because these systems simultaneously advance profitability and diversity.  The article recounts one such example.

[posted by Bill Henderson]

UK's Legal Services Board Releases Study on Individual Legal Consumer Market

With the passage of the Legal Services Act 2007, the UK began the process of liberalizing its market for legal services.  The UK legal market and all of legal education is now regulated by the Legal Services Board, which is presided over by a nonlawyer civil servant named Chris Kenney.  

The LSB's regulatory objectives are set out in Section 1 of the Act. They include: "(a) protecting and promoting the public interest";  "(c) improving access to justice"; "(d) protecting and promoting the interests of consumers"; "(e) promoting competition in the provision of services within subsection (2)"; and "(g) increasing public understanding of the citizen's legal rights and duties[.]"

One of the fruits of the new LSB regime is this just released empirical study on how British citizens evaluate and make decisions about their own legal needs. In a nutshell, they often go in alone without the benefit of a lawyer. Further, only about 20% of this unmet legal need fall in the domain of "reserved legal activities," which require a licensed legal professional.

Although the report does not come out and says this, the implication of the myriad statistics is that the British consumer market is ripe for commodification through technology and mass distribution channels.  When confronted with a legal need, face-to-face counseling with a skilled professional may be the ideal, but that is far from the reality for most British citizens.

[posted by Bill Henderson]