Is Your Firm Rewarding Or Punishing Practice Group

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Is Your Firm Rewarding or Punishing Practice Group/Office Leaders? Are you one of the “fortunate” lawyers in your firm to be leading a practice group or office? Is it clear what the firm expects from you? Does your firm compensate you in part for how well your group or office is doing?   I was a practice group leader. On the one hand, I wanted to lead and build something. On the other hand, I did not feel like a leader. I was a practice group manager. When I was a practice group leader, the firm leaders put out a memo saying that practice group leaders were essential to the firm success. The memo was designed to energize us to become more effective leaders. I took the memo seriously, so I developed an action plan of activities I would do. Here is my list: CORDELL PARVIN PGL ACTION PLAN Later I discovered that even though firm leaders talked about how important I was as a practice group leader, they compensated me for bringing in business, not for being a practice group leader. As you might imagine, that discovery put a damper on my enthusiasm for working my practice group action plan because I knew that each hour I spent on my leadership efforts was an hour I was not spending on billable work or client development. At the same time, each month I received reports on how each lawyer in my group was doing. I was always asked what I was doing to make sure the partners and associates met their billable hour requirements. I grew tired of the monthly conversations about lawyers not performing in my group. So, I went to the firm leaders to make a point. I said: What do you suppose would happen if 25% of my compensation was based on how well our practice group was performing as a group. The leaders looked dumbfounded so I answered my own question. I said: Don’t you suppose that if my compensation depended in part on the success of my group, I would spend more time working with the members of my practice group? I think they got it, but rejected my idea. Is your firm rewarding or punishing Practice Group and Office Leaders? I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.