CASE STUDY

Using Coaching Circles to Facilitate Learning and Development and Boost Engagement

Addressing the unique challenges of starting out during the pandemic

Conscious of the challenges faced by its 180 entry-level lawyers who had joined during 2020 and 2021, our Am Law 20 client came to us with a request: To enhance social and professional engagement among its junior classes and to develop collegiality.

What we’re solving for

Performance Management

Management Skills

Services

Our Process

After digging into the problem, we helped our client to clarify its three main goals:

  1. Curb any possible experience of isolation.

  2. Engender confidence that the firm is invested in developing its junior attorneys.

  3. Build greater enthusiasm for in-person work and gatherings.

We saw the value of insights that the relevant classes could bring to the conversation with their more senior colleagues so, in the Spring of 2022, using different modalities including group coaching and peer coaching, we created a program for junior lawyers in the firm’s New York office. It was a large program with 13 cohorts of approximately 14 lawyers each, organized by class years, and typically within the same practice.

Over the course of three months, we led coaching circles to cover critical topics such as active career management and personal brand-building. Organically, we also addressed topics and frustrations surfaced by the participants, including:

  • Receiving assignments

  • Team dynamics

  • Asking for feedback

  • Mentor relationships

  • Time and commitment management; and

  • Setting boundaries

Result

As a result of the program, our consultants provided recommendations to the firm on how to continue to engage and develop these uniquely situated classes. Beyond recommendations relating to coaching and training, we left the firm with actionable best practices for how to deepen connection among colleagues and how to encourage growth by the class members.