From Bruce MacEwen’s blog:
An unspoken, and certainly uncelebrated, aspect of the law firm associate personnel model is built-in attrition. “Built-in” can have two traditional meanings, and one new one:
- Traditional A: They wash out of their own accord, because of a variety of factors…
- Traditional B: They’re not cutting it and they’re excused.
- New Meaning: There has been zero attrition.
Welcome to the new reality of attrition. There isn’t any. I was recently talking with the Chair of a firm that would normally experience the departures of 30 or 40 associates over a typical six months. For the past six months? Zero: Not one. The concept of “built-in” attrition is suddenly broken.
So: What to do?