Trial Magazine
Theme Article
A Cohesive Team
Your staff is crucial to your practice—so take time to assemble a dedicated and hardworking group.
A firm’s success or failure depends not only on the talent, skill, and work ethic of the individual lawyers but also on its support staff. Just as hard-working and loyal employees contribute to a practice’s achievements, an exhausted and dysfunctional team may stunt its growth. So how do you build—or rebuild—your team into one that bolsters your practice?
A bad hire is one of the most expensive and devastating mistakes a law firm can make, but it can be easily avoided. First, determine whether you need a new permanent employee—analyze whether your existing team is at full capacity, what the new employee’s specific responsibilities would be, and whether your current needs will remain the same or increase in the future. This needs-based assessment is critical because stressful times may lead to rash hiring decisions. To avoid this, consider developing options for dealing with temporary surges in work, such as outsourcing certain tasks to vendors or using part-time or temporary workers. This allows you to scale your overhead in either direction as your practice’s needs change—without the added pressure of finding a new team member or paying for help that you do not need on a long-term basis.
If you are truly ready to add another full-time employee, heed this advice: Hire slow, fire fast. Thoroughly vet prospective hires with background checks, skills assessments, personality testing, and multiple interviews—including ones conducted by all members of your team, not just you and other attorneys—in both formal and informal settings. This will help determine whether the prospective new hire will “fit” appropriately with the personalities, styles, and temperament of the rest of your team. Personality assessments will help you match new team members to their best roles. Also, it is important to keep in mind that for every person who is motivated by career or financial success, another is motivated by helping others or feeling valued. Understanding an individual’s unique drive will help you lead your team.
If it turns out that a new employee is not the right fit for your team, you likely will know within the first few weeks. Don’t ignore red flags. Subtly—but firmly—reinforce the rules and expected behavior. Work both one-on-one and in groups to address issues. Provide and receive honest feedback at regular intervals, and evaluate every team member and his or her long-term commitment to your vision and goals. If you have team members who remain a poor fit, you owe it to everyone else to remove them from your team—no matter how long they have worked at your firm, whether they are friends or family, or how painful it might be for your firm in the short term.
Remember that teams thrive on consistency, clearly stated goals, frequent measurement of successes and failures in meeting objectives, and regular feedback. Step back periodically and answer these questions: Are your team’s actions in line with your shared vision? Are you doing things out of habit that are inconsistent with that vision? Have you set goals, both short and long-term, to help you get there? Everything—how your team answers the phone, your office decor, communications with clients, and interactions among your team members—needs to be regularly evaluated. Set milestones, celebrate when they are met, and give your team members the feedback, praise, confidence, and respect they deserve.
As lawyers, we spend much of our professional lives dealing with challenges. We shoulder the burdens of clients who have suffered tremendous injuries and losses. We seek justice from a system that sometimes falls short. But if our team consists of members committed to meeting these challenges head on, then the ride will always be enjoyable—even when the road is full of potholes.
Brenda S. Fulmer is a shareholder at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley in West Palm Beach, Fla. She can be reached at bsf@searcylaw.com.