Are Associates Working?
Simple question but do partners know the answer? If the humble time sheet is to be believed then yes they do. With a couple of clicks of his left mouse button captain Jack can flick through the stats for dozens of minions and see precisely what their work rate is. WIP, non-billable hours, lockup, bills paid – its all there for the quant style manager to craft their efficiency ratios. But what happens if you remove the lynchpin, the foundation …
Simple question but do partners know the answer?
If the humble time sheet is to be believed then yes they do. With a couple of clicks of his left mouse button captain Jack can flick through the stats for dozens of minions and see precisely what their work rate is. WIP, non-billable hours, lockup, bills paid – its all there for the quant style manager to craft their efficiency ratios. But what happens if you remove the lynchpin, the foundation stone, the time sheet? How in the name of all that is holy can you know what those work-shy associates are really up to? Here’s how, according to The Client Revolution …
When I talk to other lawyers about our law firm’s business model, their reactions range from envious to incredulous. No, we haven’t billed an hour since 2006, I tell them. OK, fine, they say. But don’t you internally (they sometimes say "secretly") keep track of your associates’ hours?
No, I tell them.
Then comes the look on their faces like I’m an idiot or a rube or a naif. Often they wait a moment to see if I wink or otherwise let them know that I’m joking. Once they see that I’m serious, they almost always ask this question:
"Then how do you know if your associates are working?"
I lean in, like I’m going to let them in on my secret formula.
"By managing them."
But come on who’s got time to resort to such an antiquated approach – all that leverage, all those associates and who needs to, the numbers don’t lie, chop out the deadwood…
Seeing a timesheet with a figure like 8.4 hours on it at the end of the day doesn’t tell me that an associate has been working. And it certainly doesn’t tell me anything about their work. What law firms have done over the past three generations is replace the need to manage associates with an overly simple reliance on hours billed.
So how does one tell good from bad? Oh my, the complexity. The answer’s revolutionary obviously…
Are your associates working? [The Client Revolution]
August 21, 2009
I don’t think I’ve ever had a decent manager in five years of being in commercial practice.
August 21, 2009
You’re not alone. I was shoved from pillar to post in my department as teams were created and then changed and then everyone moved round again. Felt like musical chairs. Then I left.
August 21, 2009
Poor management has been a problem in law firms for years. Getting the top management right has proved difficult for many never mind the middle!
August 25, 2009
Does it even matter.
Bill the hours and stay employed. thats the way forward
August 25, 2009
Over 16 years in medium-sized firms, I have yet to see genuine investment by a firm in its workforce, valuing employees` experience over the employees` record of raw moneymoneymoneymaking. This coupled with the above-mentioned over-reliance on “billing hours” as the “test” of a good employee, has meant a dispiriting and discouraging work environment only compensated for by pleasant colleagues and interesting work.
August 25, 2009
not in my firm they’re not; we’ve had some fits and starts but workflow is far from steady
filling out timesheets still comes with a sense of dread even though everyone knows that its quiet
it would be nice to be able to do something more constructive than plotting ways to pad the hours but its a full time job in itself at the moment