Leigh Jones recently wrote an article in American Lawyer about how the current economic uncertainties have forced large law firms to tighten the reigns on bonuses. But does that mean firms should back off of bonuses completely? No. More and more, I am garnering interest from my clients to help make their incentive systems more contemporary, an example of which would be to reward newer partners and associates for bringing in new business.
 
Here is the magic of implementing such a system: associates, and seniors, and newer partners are motivated to further your firm’s business development and business generation efforts and as a result, the pipeline expands. A strong pipeline will help to offset the financial ebbs and flows of the economy in the future.
 
Relationships are the key into the Red Zone. Make training and bonuses in this arena part of your law firm’s culture, rather than an extraneous project. Rewards beget more effort in winning new business, which translates into a bigger bottom line, even in lean times such as these.

It is amazing how out of touch some attorneys are when attending a pitch, lunch or presentation session with potential clients. Some of the comments I’ve heard about meetings:

• “They spent most of the time talking to themselves, not to us.”
• “What a complete lack of respect, let alone interest - one was using a Blackberry, one answered 2 phone calls during our meeting, and one was a potted plant.”
• “There were 2 of us and 6 of them.”
• “I found that off-color joke offensive”
• “They agreed to take a table at our favorite charity but no one showed up.”

Got the message? DON’T DO THAT!

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