Don’t sack your junior associates and staff just because of a revenue slowdown. That’s the message from professional service firm guru David Maister in this post.
None of us likes to talk or even think about it, but there continue to be signs of a slowing economy and the dreaded R word – recession. In a recession law firms get hit hard like every other business and revenue shortfalls force belt-tightening and various austerity measures. These measures often take the form of sackings – or if you prefer pleasant sounding euphemisms, my favorite is reduction in force – of junior associates and staff.
Maister recommends taking the long view and remembering that one of the key competitive issues for all law firms is recruiting and retaining talented people; a job which is made much harder by throwing folks overboard at the first sign of distress. Instead, Maister suggests a “haircut” – where partners reduce profitability and shift off as much work as possible to keep associates and staff busy and productive.
It’s a sensible long-haul strategy, but I’m guessing a fairly rare one.
