HR is one of those professions that can vary significantly from industry to industry. Speak with a HR director in manufacturing and most likely they will be dealing with a significantly different set of issues from a HR director in finance. It’s always interesting to note the variety in HR priorities across industries, but one of the toughest HR gigs around is in the law firm
by Craig Donaldson
HR is one of those professions that can vary significantly from industry to industry. Speak with a HR director in manufacturing and most likely they will be dealing with a significantly different set of issues from a HR director in finance. It’s always interesting to note the variety in HR priorities across industries, but one of the toughest HR gigs around is in the law firm.
The law firm is a unique beast in the world of professional services. The partnership structure is remarkably resistant to change of any sort in a fast-moving business world. Partners who have slogged their guts out for decades, day in and day out, are unwilling to give up their massive salaries, offices with a view and handsome retirement prospects. And rightfully so in a lot of cases.
But times are a changing. Law firms are already starting to feel the pinch of younger generations who want it all and want it now. The strict hierarchical management style of law firms doesn’t wash too well with these generations, and the culture of law firms is so resistant to change it could be set in stone for all purposes.
So, how does this bode for the HR professional within today’s large and mid-tier law firms? When HR has earned credibility through a good understanding of people and business, the function can have a good amount of sway within a company. But HR has a very different master to please in law firms. This master says “It’s my way or the highway.” Many law firm HR departments act more as internal police, with a primary role of firing those with whom partners are not happy. I know of good HR practitioners who have gone into law firms with the best of intentions and after two or three years have called it quits.
I paint a bleak picture, but it’s not all bad. I have met good heads of HR within a couple of firms who have managed to work successfully for the benefit of the firm at all levels, but they have only managed to achieve this through open-minded managing partners, hard-earned business respect and a good understanding of relevant internal and external factors. But this is the exception to the rule.
Change is inevitable, and it would appear most law firms are doing their darndest to resist it.
