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Reinventing The Law Business: Achieving The Mission -- Attracting, Training, Retaining And Inspiring Talent

Eight insights on talent management from Bruce Stachenfeld, founder and managing partner of Duval & Stachenfeld.

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In my article of two weeks ago, I threw out the proposition that if you are running a law firm — or a department or practice group in a law firm — the critical mission is to “attract, train, retain and inspire talent.” If you can do this, you are probably going to accomplish great things — and the converse. So the question now is, how do you do it?

Below is the best I have been able to come up with. It is (mostly) from a speech I gave at an IMN conference in 2011.

First — and foremost — Talent wants to be with other talented people. They crave it in their souls. They will put up with major “not nice people” and even poor working conditions, if they are convinced that other very talented people are doing it with them in the trenches. Consider Apple and Steve Jobs. He wasn’t thought of as a nice guy; indeed, quite the opposite. But when people looked around the room, they were awed at the skill sets of those in the room with them, and boy did they want to stay in that room, in the worst way. So they put up with Jobs’s not–niceness. (Of course, I do not advocate being this way as a boss — far from it.)

Second – Talent wants to be with a winning team – they are winners and they like to win. They don’t want to be with losers. As Louis Gerstner, who formerly ran IBM, said at a speech I attended some time ago, “It is good to win. Hire winners. And win! And then celebrate winning.”

Third – Talent seeks excitement and the feeling they are doing something cool. Think of Tom Sawyer painting the fence. If it looks cool to paint a fence, then people will want to paint that fence.

Fourth –– Talent wants a place where they will learn all sorts of amazing things. They like to learn “cool stuff” – and, more importantly, they really want to learn things that others don’t know. Then they can feel like they are in a special club – the keepers of the special, sacred – and secret – flame.

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Fifth – Talent wants to be recognized. They are very team–oriented if they respect the team and believe that there are other stars on the team, but there is a saying, “There is no I in team but there is a me.” So each talented person wants some level of personal recognition for his/her individual talent and achievements. This is admittedly hard to do, to forge a strong team that exalts teamwork but at the same give recognition to the work of the stars on the team on an individual basis.

Sixth – Talent – just like everyone else – wants love and appreciation. It is the most basic human emotion. It makes us feel good.

Seventh – Talent wants to be challenged – and to get to do what they do best every day. They hate boring stuff. They hate just following orders. They love being challenged and given a chance to create and do and pull things off. Given the choice, they would rather stay up all night with major stress than do the same boring thing day after day. Shocking it is sometimes to see what happens if I just get out of the way and let a real superstar just run…

As an aside, have you ever seen a great coach who is coaching his team? Sometimes he gives his players a kick in the butt and sometimes he gives the players a hug. It is one of those mysteries at how great coaches pull the absolute best and most out of their people. The team knows the coach loves them – but at the same time the team knows the coach is demanding 150% all the time.

Eighth, and finally, Talent wants a place with great leadership. I am sure I could write many pages on leadership, as many have done before me – but I think the two key leadership ingredients are:

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A leader who is smart – who will not lead the firm off a cliff.

A leader who has integrity – who is honest and fair in treatment.

These eight things are what I think Talent wants in order to be lured in and retained.

So, as you lead your law firm, your department, your practice group, or any team in the legal world, I ask you: are you doing the foregoing? If so, I bet you have:

  • A powerful and strong team;
  • A team that sticks together through thick and thin – and where the might of headhunters, recruiters, lures, money and other blandishments simply doesn’t work to pry people loose;
  • A team where weaker players tend to leave and stronger players tend to stay and thrive;
  • A place where if people leave they rarely if ever go to your competition;
  • A team where super legal work is produced – consistently;
  • A team where people truly care about each other – and look out for each other;
  • An environment where you don’t have to watch your back;
  • A place where, maybe to your surprise, you find that the people you are training exceed even your talents and skills in many ways (and instead of being threatened by it, you are thrilled by it).

I can say truthfully that following the eight concepts above has worked for me at my firm. Somehow my team has become exceptionally talented and stayed with me for a long time. I can’t say I knew all of this at the beginning – certainly I did not – but I have spent a lot of time trying to discern the reasons for our success (and occasional failures) – and come up with the above themes.

I will end by saying that of all the eight items above, I think the first one is by far the most critical and, indeed, one of the great truths I have stumbled upon:

“Talent – more than anything else in the world – wants to be with other talent.”

Bruce Stachenfeld is the managing partner of Duval & Stachenfeld LLP, which is an approximately 70-lawyer law firm based in midtown Manhattan. The firm is known as “The Pure Play in Real Estate Law” because all of its practice areas are focused around real estate. With over 50 full-time real estate lawyers, the firm is one of the largest real estate law practices in New York City. You can contact Bruce by email at thehedgehoglawyer@gmail.com.

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