What really motivates lawyers…
What really motivates lawyers….and why it frustrates managing partners
Motivation theory is simple. People do what they want to do. And they want to do those things for which they are rewarded. Not just externally rewarded (by money, promotion etc) but internally rewarded (the way that they feel about themselves when they do something).
Lawyers are no different in this regard. After years of working in the law, and rising to the rank of partner, the additional responsibility of generating profitable work doesn’t change their motivational profile. It just adds another factor to be considered.
This new factor “make money” has to pit itself against 10+ years of being focused on doing excellent legal work, with the initial audience being the university tutor, then supervising partner and fianally, with experience, the clients themselves. Internally, the lawyer seeks peer recognition for being an excellent lawyer. Externally, despite the firm’s continuous exhortation to get new clients, the most measured target is chargeable hours, not profitable work.
Thus lawyers self-censor. They continually ask themselves whether they could have undertaken the task quicker or better, and if the answer is “yes” they have an internal pressure to reduce the final client invoice, by under recording, not recording or discounting the final invoice. Even when a partner is light on hours there is an internal critic which militates against full recognition for time taken. And then it gets worse.
In current market conditions, where clients are looking for greater savings and lawyers are exploring every permutation and combination of pricing, the situation is exacerbated. Few partners are money-focused in the way that bankers or even accountants are.
Partners tend to use a multiple of time taken as a base from which to invoice on success, rather than work backwards from client value. So partners, still focused on utilisation and realisation are squeezed on partner rates, secondments and final discounts in a spiral of falling profitability.
Meanwhile, managing partners wonder why the firm isn’t as profitable as it should be.