Partner Issues

Senior Partner Sends Over-The-Top Email To 'Embarrass' Attorneys At The Firm

This was completely unnecessary.

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I don’t care what an attorney has done, a senior partner sending a firmwide email with the express purpose of embarrassing other attorneys — especially junior attorneys — at the firm is never a good look. Yes, in this instance, the attorneys subjected to the partner’s wrath were — initially, at least — in the wrong, but the partner is the one who comes out with egg on his face.

According to the internal email obtained by Roll on Friday, the attorneys subjected to this public ridicule were lax in entering their billable hours. And I get it, I do, recording hours worked is incredibly important for a law firm. It’s how firms get paid, and in turn pay their employees. It’s annoying as shit (and if anecdotes are to be believed, a major motivation for attorneys moving in-house), but it does *have* to be done. But this senior partner’s reaction to the admittedly annoying, albeit understandable, delay in time entry is beyond the pale.

Gordon Oldham is a senior partner at the Hong Kong based firm of Oldham, Li & Nie. And the missive he fired out is utterly absurd. He starts:

I’ve learnt that you can motivate 90% of people through love, fear or greed. I subsequently learned that you can catch the other 10% though embarrassment or religious guilt.

Oh boy, this is going to be a doozy!

It seems that some of you are not in love with OLN and its success to actually mark your time. You don’t fear any punishment and you are obviously not greedy enough to want to get commissions from the fees that you put in. So I have decided that maybe I can embarrass a few of you by showing you the attached which of course is for your billable time from the 4th to the 8th of January as recorded – or in the case of [Associate 1], [Partner 1], and [Associate 2], not recorded for those four days.

Seriously, embarrassment is the STATED PURPOSE of this email. This is… a terrible leadership technique.

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[Associate 1], the last time I asked you about this you promised me you would start using it [timekeeping software] and keep it open on your desk at all times. You haven’t and you still fail to put in your time.

And fellow partners were not immune from Oldham’s anger:

[Partner 2], congratulations, in 5 days you managed to record 1 hour.

But it gets absolutely brutal as he turns his attention to a trainee and another associate:

[Trainee 1], unless you have been in suspended animation where you have absolutely no work, could you please find out how I discontinue a Training Contract halfway through where the trainee refuses/fails to carry out reasonable instructions from his principal!

[Associate 3], I used to criticise you for not putting in bills and you always told me you did but your principals at that time were discounting you. Now, I see that you don’t even put in any time so perhaps before it was just a made up excuse?

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And he’s ready for some real consequences:

If at the end of this week there is not a marked improvement in timekeeping then I’m going to have to start issuing formal notices to everybody who fails to do so or who fails to establish a working relationship with Clio [timekeeping software]. Formal notices of this nature will have an impact on bonuses, pay rises, holidays.

If you cannot look after your own affairs, how on earth do you expect to look after your clients matters?

Roll on Friday reached out to Oldham for comment, and while he had some choice words about his opinion on the newsworthiness of the story (and yeah, both billable hour entry and jerk partners are absolutely fodder for legal blogs, so the Venn diagram of this story checks out), he eventually, kinda defends the email:

My dog Tommy who is a very friendly Hong Kong Street stray only took one occasion when he backed into a hot radiator to learn his lesson. It seems that he can learn faster than some people these days who are being pulled kicking and screaming into the age of technology. Illustrating who is using technology and who is not hardly constitutes the shaming of lawyers. Not exactly Game of Thrones. Man up…or is that too gender specific these days.

DUDE! You literally wrote were sending the email in order to embarrass your fellow attorneys, now you’re backing away and trying to claim that isn’t “shaming”? It is EXACTLY what you said you were trying to do. You easily could have sent *private* emails to the offending attorneys, but you went for a public show because you were aiming to shame.

At least those who choose to work with him now know just what kind of toxic work environment they’re walking into.

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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