The convergence of a number of demographic, economic and social trends is making it more challenging than ever for law firms and corporate legal departments to attract, groom and retain top legal professionals. Best Practices for Recruiting, Developing and Retaining Top Legal Talent, a new white paper from Robert Half Legal, a legal staffing service specializing in attorneys, paralegals and other highly skilled legal professionals provides an overview of the business and demographic trends that are reshaping the legal field.

The legal profession is facing staffing challenges caused by diminished law school enrollment, increased lateral movement of midlevel associates, seasoned talent opting out of the profession, and the pending retirement of the baby boomer generation. As a result, competition for talent among law firms and corporate legal departments has intensified and law offices are re-evaluating the way they hire, motivate, promote and retain top performers, particularly women and minorities, two groups with high attrition rates.

 

Law firms and legal departments recognize that they have reached a crucial moment in which they must develop and implement policy changes that meet the needs and priorities of today’s legal workforce. Even some of the most tradition-bound law offices are deploying progressive staffing initiatives – from YouTube-style recruiting videos and part-time schedule options to diversity training and the elimination of mandatory retirement. The stakes are high for all law offices: If they do not innovate, they run the risk of a costly talent drain. To remain competitive, recruit and retain top talent, boost profitability, and grow their businesses, law firms and corporate legal departments must adapt their staffing and management practices.

 

Research conducted for the Future Law Office project discovered several developments that are likely to continue to impact the legal profession:

· Despite a cautious economy, demand for newly minted lawyers with the most sought-after skills and a top-tier education remains strong and is expected to outpace the supply. In addition to law degrees, the most desirable and marketable candidates also possess degrees in biology, chemistry or other sciences and technology, which allow them to better represent clients in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, biotechnology and technology industries.

· Many midlevel associates are leaving within three or four years of taking a job at a law firm. The reasons given for switching firms included a desire to move to a different geographic location, pursuit of new practice interests, change to another type of legal job, cost-of-living issues and student debt. Other factors were high billable expectations, communication problems within a firm, lack of transparency about the firm’s finances and the relatively low probability of making partner. Other midlevel associates and senior attorneys are leaving the profession entirely. Among minority associates, attrition rates are even steeper. Seasoned attorneys opt out for many of the same reasons that others make lateral moves, including changing priorities, a search for different opportunities and the desire for better work-life balance. Because attrition has historically been the cost of doing business, the financial impact of unwanted or excessive attrition can be severe. It has been estimated that the economic cost of losing an attorney may range from $300,000 to $700,000.

· As the baby boomer generation enters retirement over the next 10 years, businesses of all types will be confronted with a shortage of millions of workers and will compete for a smaller pool of younger workers with less experience and expertise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a flat growth rate of less than 0.5 percent for the U.S. workforce during the next 60 years.

 

The combination of candidate shortages, overheated demand in certain practice areas, declining law school enrollment, attrition among midlevel associates, the opting out of seasoned attorneys and the looming retirement of the baby boomer generation is daunting. To survive and thrive, law offices must now take a much harder look at making significant changes in personnel practices including implementing policies to attract and retain more women and minority groups, preserve the intellectual capital of older attorneys and continue to provide work-life balance programs that address the needs of lawyers at every stage of their careers.

 

Best Practices for Recruiting, Developing and Retaining Top Legal Talent is part of Robert Half Legal’s Future Law Office project. For the annual research study, Robert Half Legal interviewed experts in law firm and corporate legal department management, our own legal staffing specialists throughout North America, and other professionals in the legal fields. Our findings also are based on extensive research from state and national legal publications, legal associations, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and Statistics Canada. Robert Half Legal regularly commissions surveys of attorneys on a variety of workplace and legal management issues. Relevant statistics from these studies, which include responses from 300 attorneys among the top law firms and corporate legal departments in the United States and Canada, are included in the study.