On Law Firm Perfection

Once institutions begin to prize revenue over perfection, they may lose their focus.

Good law firms say they don’t make mistakes.

The firms instill this in their associates.  You file a brief; you notice a typo after it’s filed; you cringe and curse:  “Damn!  I can’t believe I missed that!  What an idiot!”

Partners circle typos on associates’ drafts.  Maybe the partners explain that this firm doesn’t produce work with typographical errors.  Maybe the partners don’t actually explain that; they let the circles speak for themselves. 

On the one hand, the associates think this is crazy:  “Why are they so nuts about typos?  The judge will know what we mean.”

On the other hand, the partners know that they’re right:  “If we’re perfect and the other firm is not, we get more and better work.  If the other firm is perfect and we’re not, the market destroys us.  We’re perfect.”

The sane associates may quit.

The nutcases may remain.

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But the firm continues to produce top-notch work.  (The work isn’t really perfect, of course.  The work is, however, what you produce when you pursue perfection, and that’s what the firm is after.)

The pursuit of perfection:  That’s the way it works.  That’s the way it’s supposed to work.  That’s how you instill a culture of perfection.  (Heaven help the associate who overlooks something that’s actually important, such as a key case, or the associate who misstates a holding.  Real blunders may have real consequences.)

Once in a blue moon, you hear a partner say that an error doesn’t matter.  But these are special occasions.  For example, the associate has been at the firm for seven years.  The associate’s work has been flawless for those seven years.  And the associate now overlooked something in a brief that’s been filed.  The associate is overcome with remorse, because the associate is actually a top-notch lawyer (and a compulsive nutcase).  The partner tries to calm the associate:  “That’s okay.  Everyone makes a mistake every once in a while.  I even made a mistake back in ’83.  We’ll fix your error in the reply brief.  Don’t worry about it.”

But that’s very, very rare.

I suspect (but don’t know from personal experience) that other top-notch professional services firms operate the same way.  The very best management consultants, investment banks, and the like strive for perfection.  It’s how they survive.

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But once institutions get sufficiently large, or start to operate in less competitive spaces, or have less demanding clients, or begin to prize revenue over perfection, institutions may lose their focus.

“How do you feel about malpractice claims?”

“You have to be compassionate.  I figure that anyone can make a mistake.”

Your institution is dead.

The pursuit of perfection is gone.  And if you’re not pursuing perfection, you’ll never got anywhere close to achieving it.


Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.