Biglaw

What's Behind The Bad Vibes At Biglaw Firms?

Some firms focus on profits to the detriment of their associates.

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Businesspeople grabbing moneyWhat makes the culture of a Biglaw firm? That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer without defaulting to Potter Stewart’s “I know it when I see it” explanation. But the folks at Major Lindsey & Africa have attempted to parse it all out in their 2023 Law Firm Culture Survey.

The survey author, Ronald Wood, a managing director at MLA, explained how they hit upon the methodology. “We tried to come up with a list of things that people place value on. How do those compare to what you see in your firm? What do you want to see more or less of?” he said. “Because culture is out there in so many different ways, let’s pull it together in one place and see what it actually means when you sample the lawyer population.”

And the results are interesting. Almost 40% identified “profit-mindedness” as something that induced negative feelings toward their law firm. While profits fuel the $225,000 associate pay scale, it’s the exclusive focus on revenue that has negative reverberations throughout firms. We’ve seen Biglaw firms tout their stellar profitability on one hand while engaging in associate layoffs to maintain those numbers with the other.

The anonymous comments from the survey also show this:

“It is a boys club that is singularly fixated on getting everyone to return to the office 5 days a week and billing as many hours as possible with zero regard for other people’s job satisfaction, work/life balance, or mental health. Female attorneys are leaving in droves and I have no idea why other than I am miserable too.”

Others referred to their firm as “a cold sweatshop” or an employer with “almost no focus on training and mentorship.”

While the profit focus garnered the most negative reactions from respondents, lack of transparency and poor partner/associate ratios rounded out the top three reasons the vibes are off in Biglaw firms.

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If that’s the list of what makes a bad Biglaw culture, you have to wonder, what makes a good one? The survey identified the following as positive culture indicators: “high priority on client service,” “high quality performance expectations,” “integrity,” and “firm is well-managed from a financial standpoint.”

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. 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 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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