Firm’s Strategy and Compensation Plan Apply for Formal Separation

IN THE MATTER OF: THE PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY AND THE PARTNER COMPENSATION FRAMEWORK

A law firm's strategic plan and compensation framework have filed for formal separation, citing irreconcilable differences over the purpose of the business.

The strategic plan seeks collaboration, efficient delivery, investment in people and the sharing of knowledge. The compensation framework maintains that everybody should continue doing whatever generated the largest personal figure last year, provided nobody calls it selfish.

“We have tried to make this work,” said the strategy, speaking from a shared folder last opened at the previous retreat. “But I cannot keep asking people to build common capability while my partner rewards them for keeping it to themselves.”

Compensation denied changing. The strategy says this is precisely the problem.

Grounds for separation

1. A partner who developed a reusable client workflow saw personal billable hours fall and was asked to explain their declining productivity.
2. A team leader who mentored junior lawyers was praised at the awards evening and penalised at year-end for making her own figures less impressive.
3. A partner who referred a client to the right colleague was congratulated for collaboration and then asked to prove which proportion of the work he had originated.

At mediation, the strategy proposed a mixed measure of client outcomes, team contribution, capability building and individual performance. Compensation agreed that these were “the future of professional services” and offered them an attractive non-financial paragraph in the annual appraisal form.

The mediator asked why the firm repeatedly commissioned strategies it did not intend to pay anybody to follow. Management said the answer was complicated and asked whether it could be discussed without reference to remuneration.

The documents will continue to share a website, values statement and executive-committee photograph while separating their finances.

A temporary arrangement gives the strategic plan custody of the words innovation, collaboration and long-term value. Compensation retains control of what partners do between nine and midnight.

The partners have promised not to take sides. At the next compensation meeting they asked which side would count towards origination.