Canadian Lawyer

w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 41 particularly major cultural and structural change, without the active support of the managing partner. Khorasanee: Succession planning is critical to the firm's future sustainability, especially as it relates to knowledge and relationship transfer to incoming leaders. Most law firms agree that it's an issue and they talk about it on the surface. But it's rare that firms are going through a step-by-step process to evaluate what they can do better. What happens if a partner leaves? What's going to be picked up? Who's going to do it? Those formal steps of thinking that through, we've found at CIBC when we engage them that it's not that common for firms to have gone through that exercise, even though it's criti- cally important. Wilbur: What about attracting the talent? What should law firms think about as they're planning their recruitment strategies? Khorasanee: Generally, law firms do try their best at creat- ing a welcoming environment for clients and employees, because they realize that having a diverse open culture makes them more relatable and helps drive success. I think the devil's in the details though. What specifically are you doing? Is it just on the surface? Once people come in, does it all stop? You need to offer employees the opportunity to do meaningful and interesting work and have a strong commitment to learning as well as flexibility. Diversity is the key thing that we've been talking about here as well. Gone are the days where you hired the same type of person to do the same type of work and you had the same type of client. You are now hiring people with different skillsets, different abilities, different strengths in terms of the way they work. Although the technical expertise is a given, clients are looking for different things to be able to connect with their lawyer. To put technical expertise and relevant/relatable solutions together, you need to figure out how is it that we can keep people working, being creative and giving their best to this organization and their clients? From what we hear from our clients at CIBC, the way to do that is to create a comfort- able environment in which they feel valued. Nicoló: Talent continues to be an ongoing discussion at all organizations, not just law firms. As more and more lawyers are entering the marketplace, their qualifications become table stakes. Therefore, the real differentiator for young talent is their ability to fit within your firm's culture, regardless of firm size. RSM research has shown that when it comes to attracting top talent, it's all about becoming an employer of choice, differen- tiating your firm from the competition and showing top talent how joining your firm can help them reach their career goals. Harvesting the power of your people and clients is very power- ful. They are great brand ambassadors for your firm and their experiences significantly affect your ability to attract top tal- ent. Culture is a talent magnet; therefore, attract talent by your firm culture. In our fast-paced interconnected world, diverse teams are becoming crucial; therefore, invest in diversity. Make professional development a top priority for firm management. Lastly, getting beyond money, tomorrow's talent prioritizes flexibility, purpose and ethics. Wilbur: Law firms talk about culture so much. It's something that can have a negative connotation if it excludes people, but it can also have a positive connotation. How can law firms ensure that it's the positive side that is front and centre when they're attracting talent? Nicoló: Harness the power of your people and clients. They are a great brand ambassador for your firm and their experiences sig- nificantly affect your ability to attract top talent. Your people, your clients, they talk, so if they are having positive experiences, they are telling their friends, their family, so that really helps with that. Khorasanee: The legal community is tightly knit with law- yers being well connected to peers through their law schools. This pool is small enough that they have eyes and ears everywhere. Lawyers can also often see across different industries. So, using your people to disseminate your culture is the most effective way you can do it; it's the fastest, most effective and the most efficient. And, so, we talk about this concept of net promoter scores and employee net promoter scores. If you've got an organization full of net promoters internally, that's going to disseminate quite naturally, because they are just so well connected across the industry. And that just builds on itself. Wilbur: What should law firms consider if access to capital is limiting their growth? Khorasanee: At CIBC, we have a lot of conversations around this with our clients. And the benefit we have in CIBC's Profes- sional Services Group is that we've got such a large volume of law firms that we deal with, we have this ability to assess the differ- ent sensitivities at law firms. Law firms capitalize themselves in three ways. There's capital contributions made by partners, there's retained earnings or undistributed income that's held back in the firm and there's debt. The reality is there's no single answer on what the right balance is among these three sources of capital. Firm culture typically guides that balance. For example, some firms just traditionally don't like the concept of borrowing. The key is the firm should understand what its options are. It should be having these conversations with both its commercial bankers and their accountants, because there are different ramifications and different ways to balance this equation. At CIBC, we provide guid- ance around the options that firms have and the tradeoffs of each option. But a lot of firms are not as aware as they should be. When we talk about partners contributing capital, what are our options there? Is this a burden on the partner? Can we make it not a bur- den on the partner? And if it's not a burden, is that a better answer than borrowing through a credit line? The reality is that they have a lot of options. That's the key to it. Nicoló: I would say, at RSM, we are amazed at how many firms large and small pay little to no attention to optimizing their firm

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