Thine and Ari Kaplan partnered to analyze the impact that the competitive marketplace is having on the legal industry and how organizations are approaching the hiring, development, and promotion of associates.

We are delighted to announce that Sang J. Lee has been honored as a member of 2021’s Fastcase 50. The award, which was created in 2011, recognizes the legal industry’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders who have made important contributions.

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This report is intended primarily for Professional Development, Talent Management and HR professionals in law firms. It is also intended for partners and senior administrators curious to learn more about the use of upward reviews in law firms.

Many of the challenges faced by the lawyers I work with comeback to one thing: time/project management.

While the use of executive coaching within law firms has grown significantly, there is still a majority of firms beyond the Am Law 100 where coaching has yet to find its place.

In life outside work, what feeling fills the space when the experience you have is not what you imagined?

Networking, whether for career purposes or for business development, has to be about so much more than that a well-rehearsed 30 second “pitch.”

Mondays. We all hate ’em—with good reason. Our weekends are ours, a time for family, friends, fun (and of course some chores).

Who would you be more likely to have questions for or want to strike up a conversation with? Who are you more likely to remember? The project finance partner? Or the bridge builder?

Old habits are hard to break and new ones hard to learn—even when the new habit is better, when you want to change. Change takes time no matter how much you want it. Start small. Build slowly. Practice every day.

The concept of branding may seem like it is overdone but in order to succeed as an attorney, you must be able to describe what you do, for whom, and how you do it in a compelling and concise manner.

While people may be confident that they can tell you who has or doesn’t have executive presence, many struggle to define it clearly.

Imagine that you are responsible for training the attorneys in your law firm. The lawyers in your firm have told you that they want training on critical management skills such as delegation and team management. You've heard them.

In practice, if you want to be better at your job, you owe it to yourself to be accountable to yourself for the skills and experience you develop. And to get better, you need feedback. Everyone does.

Despite recent headlines suggesting that the days of conventional performance evaluations are numbered, it seems that performance reviews are alive and well, at least in the legal industry. And, it’s that time of year.

If you want to manage time, start by taking responsibility for your communications and being clear whenever you assign or take on a new task or project.

Do we truly want our employees to be all alike? In today’s hiring landscape, ‘fit’ has long been a pervasive buzzword. Yet few give it a precise definition or outline exactly how it enables team building and success.

It is a universal truth that by listening to those leaving your firm, you can more actively focus your retention initiatives to hold on to people you want to keep.

Lateral hiring is a peculiarly difficult business. And there’s no shortage of legal industry commentary to make you think twice about its efficacy as a growth strategy.

Although a number of law firms have been proactive in efforts to address transition or succession issues, surprisingly, those firms represent a distinct minority.

The Business Development team has a vital role to play in the recruitment, onboarding and integration phases of a healthy and effective lateral partner hiring model.

For years now, the legal sector has been focused on the perceived flaws in lateral partner hiring as a growth strategy. Anecdotally at least, it seems that as many of the problems result from poor integration.

Groysberg questions what actually makes stars “stars” and whether, if they move jobs, they can simply provide a plug-and-play solution for their new firms.

Succession planning is a term we hear regularly in law firms. And yet, when I speak to partners, it seems to be an area that is often ignored in practice. But it is crucial. It goes to the root of client service and client retention.