Biglaw

The Bullying In Biglaw Is Off The Charts -- And Managing Partners Are Too Scared To Stop It

I guess it doesn't get better.

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Angry businesswoman yelling at a businessman through bullhorn.This is shocking… but not surprising. According to a recent survey of 124 law firm managing partners, conducted by industry consultants Patrick McKenna and David Parnell, a whopping 93(!) percent of firm leaders report bullying at their firms.

I guess it doesn’t get better.

Moreover, the survey reveals that the bullies are the high earners, and pulling in the big bucks for the firm makes 40% of those surveyed unable — or unwilling — to stop the objectionable behavior. As Law.com reports:

“It’s frankly uncomfortable. It’s not that they’re necessarily pushovers,” said law firm consultant McKenna, who co-authored the survey with legal search executive Parnell. McKenna said he almost titled the survey, “Bad Boys” after the theme song in the TV show “Cops.”

The problem, McKenna and Parnell said, is that nobody is coming for the bad boys. Law firms often lack good procedures for disciplining partners who act out of line—by blocking the success of others, refusing to participate in firmwide initiatives or building personal fiefdoms within their firms.

This probably doesn’t come as a shock to associates working at firms where screamers and other forms of bullies are de rigueur. And the survey reveals most of the managing partners know they should be doing something about the bullies, even when they don’t know exactly what that is.

Some managers have already gotten the message. Fifty-nine percent of all respondents said they had reduced a partner’s compensation because of detrimental behavior in the past five years, while 52 percent said they had asked partners to leave in the past five years for conduct that offended their values.

But McKenna said it is vital to make such moves explicit. Some managers reported using compensation cuts to “send a signal” to a partner, with no specific reason given.

“Then what you get is a bad-acting lawyer who’s pissed off,” McKenna said.

So we know that bullying at law firms is a major problem, and the partners in charge have little understanding of how to fix it. Well, there’s no helicopter mom about to swoop in and demand that the problem be fixed. It’s up to all the partners and associates toiling away in law firms to implement change themselves.

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In other words, you’re screwed.

Note to Law Firm Bullies: Your Managing Partner is Afraid of You [Law.com]

Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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