Lawyer Termination Our periodic surveys are usually sparked by a question from a law firm about a specific issue. This month, that issue is lawyer “involuntary” termination, i.e., the firing or layoff of partners and associates. Our unscientific survey tells us that, despite a lot of conversation about quality culls among associates, in a typical year, two thirds of firms have involuntary terminations of less than five percent of their total number of associates.
In terms of notice, 78 percent allow associates to continue working until they find a new job or for a specific period of time, whichever is less. This marks a significant tightening of notice policies from the last time we did this survey five years ago. Then, half of the responding firms allowed associates to continue working until they found a new job, with virtually no limit to how long it took. Only 11 percent of firms require associates to leave immediately upon termination.
The average notice period is between 60 and 90 days, with firms often providing 60 days and later extending it an additional 30 days if the associate has not found a job. After the notice period, many firms offer some form of severance benefit including salary continuation, insurance benefits (or firm paid COBRA premiums), and continued access to voice mail and e-mail. About 25 percent of firms offer continued use of an office or continued secretarial support. Three quarters of firms offer or have offered some form of outplacement services.
Typically, firms offer outplacement on a case by case basis but it seems to be offered about equally to departing partners and associates. The firms’ satisfaction with outplacement services is evenly divided between fair and good. None of our respondents considered it excellent or poor. The primary reason for not offering outplacement is cost and most firms pay a fixed fee for the service rather than the percentage of salary which is typical in corporate outplacement.
A third of our respondents were from firms with more than 500 lawyers, 22% were from firms with between 100 and 500 lawyers and 44% were from firms with less than 100 lawyers.
Remembering Summer Associates Names You may have seen this but we thought it was an idea worth repeating. Taking a page from the Pentagon’s Iraqi Most Wanted List, Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrick gives its partners trading cards with summer associate’s pictures and basic biographical information, including avocational interests. The cards replace the firm’s traditional “bio book” and have been a big hit with the summer associates who expect to be able to sell their cards on E-Bay when they become famous.
Administrative Outsourcing You don’t have to go to India to outsource administrative functions. CBF Group, Inc. (www.cbfgroup.net) provides 24/7 secretarial services from their North Dakota location for law firms at $200 per month per lawyer. The company provides telephone recorded dictation transcription, copy distribution and a variety of concierge-type services. A testimonial from Piper Rudnick is listed on the company’s website.
Legal Resource Group LLC specializes in serving the executive and administrative recruiting needs of law firms. We maintain the largest data base of law firm executive and Administrative staff in the world. This allows us to immediately identify the very best candidates. We find the best people, complete searches faster and have extremely reasonable fees. For further information, visit our website at www.LRGLLC.com , contact us by e-mail at inquiries@LRGLLC.com or by phone at 1-800-688-4147.
