Canadian Lawyer

tech Support By Danielle Olofsson KM and the first-year associate conundrum Better training programs can help make those 'costly' new lawyers become profitable sooner. M itchell Kowalski's book Avoiding Extinction: Reimagining Legal Services for the 21st Century describes an ideal law firm in which clients "really" come first, files are managed efficiently, knowledge management plays a pivotal role, and the least experienced lawyer is an eightyear associate. Although utopic, if not somewhat irresponsible — who is to train future generations of lawyers if not law firms? — the law firm he describes raises the challenge of the first-year associate. It is undeniable that clients are increasingly unwilling to "pay for training." I have responded to RFPs in which clients refuse to pay for firstand second-year legal technicians. My American colleagues tell me they have seen similar policies apply to first- and second-year associates. From a client's point of view, this is understandable: why pay substantial hourly rates for someone who is still learning the ropes. It, however, is not as if firms are necessarily making money off their first-year associates. My understanding is that on average, it takes a lawyer three to five years of experience before they begin to generate substantial profits for their firm. Until that point, law firms invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in their training. Moreover, there is nothing secure about this investment as many junior lawyers leave the firm soon after they become profitable, leaving their employer with little return on investment. 18 June 2013 www.CANADIAN How should law firms respond to this? In one country in which I worked, salaries reflected the investment made by the firm. It was only between three and five years of practice that associates began to make salaries comparable to those paid in North America. In Canada, this model has been shunned as it would handicap a law firm at recruitment. Another response would be to hire fewer junior associates. According to the Association of Legal Administrators, this is exactly what is happening in many law firms across America. A third option is a more aggressive L a w ye r m a g . c o m use of knowledge management. If we accept as a premise that law firms will continue to hire and train law students as soon as they graduate from law school but that clients may be increasingly unwilling to help pay for this, then firms are left with several options: 1. clients in such a way that the Bill hours spent by junior lawyers working on a file do not appear on the invoice (by using a fixed fee for example); 2. Train associates so they become more profitable faster; 3. Help associates build books of business from day one so they can begin

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