Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog

Category: Interviews

Mar 21, 2017

Retaining Valued Associate Attorneys – Conducting Exit Interviews

Question:

Our firm is a fourteen attorney law firm in San Diego, California. We handle business transactions and litigation for business firms in the area. I am a member of the firm’s three-member executive committee. We have been experiencing associate attorney turnover for the past two years and don’t know whether it is due to more opportunities in the job market as the economy has improved or whether we have internal issues. We would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

Response:

I suggest that in the future you conduct structured face-to-face exit interviews when associates resign their positions. You may want to even interview associates by phone that recently resigned and left the firm. Exit interviews can provide an opportunity to find out how you can retain your valued associates. Departing lawyers that are willing to be open regarding their experience with your firm can provide valuable feedback and information as to how your firm is viewed by your associates, why your associates are leaving, and what the firm can do to resolve issues and improve retention.

I suggest that you conduct either face-to-face or telephone interviews or as a last resort written confidential voluntary questionnaire. Questions might include:

What influenced your decision to join the firm?
Has the firm met your expectations? Describe?
Were your work assignments aligned with your personal and professional goals and interests?
Did you find your work assignments interesting and challenging?
Were there particular individuals who had a substantial impact on the quality of your experience here? How did they impact your experience?
Did you receive timely and quality feedback regarding your performance?
What experiences did you find the most positive?
Least positive?
Is there anything that the firm could have done to improve your experience here?
Were you satisfied with your compensation and benefits?
Why did you decide to leave the firm?
What factors influenced your choice of the new firm that you joined?
Other issues or recommendations that you feel would be helpful for the firm to know.

After you have solicited feedback via exit interviews it is critical that you look into any issues reported, determine whether there is merit, and take appropriate actions that can be taken to resolve issues and improve retention.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Aug 04, 2014

Law Firm Client Telephone Satisfaction Interviews in Insurance Defense Law Firms

Question:

I am the chair of our firm's marketing committee. We are a 24 attorney insurance defense firm in Houston. While we solicit feedback from some of our larger insurance company clients at lunch and face to face meetings – the sessions are not structured, data is not really tabulated, and only a handful of clients are usually involved. We have been thinking of embarking on a more structured process. I would appreciate your thoughts:

Response:

Our firm recently completed client satisfaction interviews for several of our insurance defense law firm clients. Here are a few quotes and a summary of what these insurance company law firm clients told us:

We want to work with proactive attorneys that aren’t afraid to try cases.
Limit the number of people working on a file. I like consistent assignments.
I expect attorneys to get back to me by the next business day.
I like one partner and one associate per file.
Most of our billing issues with law firms is due to excessive use of associates time.
I get upset with attorneys that want to settle right before trial.
The primary reason that we terminate our relationship with our outside attorneys is not reporting to us in a timely fashion and poor communications.
I find that many lawyers are poor at managing their files and have poor basic communication skills. I work with lawyers that can do both of these things well.
I think that it is important that law firms provide value added services such as newsletters, legislative updates, e-alerts, seminars, etc on a “no charge” basis. These services are provided by most law firms these days. Such services help us do our jobs better, improves communications and the overall relationship between our organization and the law firm, keeps us up to date on changes in the law, and helps the law firm stay abreast of emerging needs in our business.
I will pay higher fees to lawyers that aren’t afraid to try cases.

Much can be learned by talking to your clients. Structured telephone interviews conducted by a neutral in-house law firm marketing employee or outside third party can provide many surprises as well as answers. Client satisfaction interviews can be the best marketing investment that you can make.

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