Biglaw

If Biglaw Firms Want Loyalty, They Need To Care About Work/Life Balance

If you want to keep the best and brightest at your Biglaw firm, you have to care about them as people.

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The Biglaw lateral market favors the bold, and lawyers willing to change their employers are often rewarded — whether it be with a new title, fewer hours, or superior compensation. The lateral market is a feature, not a bug of the Biglaw system, with over 9,000 lateral moves tracked in the five years between 2014 and 2018.

But like any trend, some folks buck it. Law.com has a feature on attorneys who are “lifers” — ones that have stayed with the same firm through thick and thin. Reading through the interviews is illuminating, but one theme stands out, attorneys are loyal to their firms (in part) because they are able to balance their home life with the demands of Biglaw.

Take Steven Weinstein who is the Managing Partner of K&L Gates’s Miami office. He says he’s “exceptionally” involved in his twin sons’ activities and acts as coach for their sports teams. Or Jennifer Olmedo-Rodriguez, Managing Partner of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney’s Miami office, who left the firm for three years to have her first child. She says she was welcomed back with “open arms” and her career didn’t suffer at all:

“They put me back into my class year, kept me on that track,” she said. “Even the code to get into the office and my computer was the same. … It was like I never left.”

And Joseph Rich, partner at Cozen O’Connor, says:

“I don’t feel like I’m ever missing out on family time,” Rich said. “I have a lot of friends that are attorneys, and they can’t say the same thing.”

The formula to keep the best talent seems clear. Compensation and top flight legal work are necessary, but not sufficient to keep the best and brightest at the firm. You actually need to let the attorneys at your firm have a life outside of the firm if you want them to stay.

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Despite a Hot Lateral Market, These Attorneys Are Law Firm Lifers [Law.com]

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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