How Can Law Firms Retain Good Talent?

Pandemic crisis, movement to alternate careers and work-life balance are the factors that escalating the attrition rate in the sector which was discussed by the panellists in the session from their respective points of views 

Law firms are the legal adviser body for society and common men, and sustaining good talent in the sector is very essential for the growth of the legal system and public as well. The eminent panellist discussed the factors that every legal firm should practice in order to sustain good lawyers in their respective firms. In this regard, R. Sudhinder, Senior Partner, Argus Partners, said, ‘‘I personally feel that the leadership and culture of a firm play a huge role in sending out the green signal to a person to join the firm and stay in the firm.’’ 

While Sumit Roy, Founder & Managing Partner, of Claritas Legal believes that apart from compensation, talent perception also matters in terms of attrition level because when a newcomer joins a firm they have a different perception of that firm. 

Zain Pandit, Partner, JSA pointed out the significance to maintain the work-life balance in pushing down the attrition rate, Pandit said that when younger people working in law firms and look at their counterparts working in other sectors of technology and start-ups, they also desire to have a social life. 

Mukesh Butani, Managing Partner, BMR Legal discussed numerous reasons behind attrition and mentioned that the pandemic crisis forced these legal professionals to return to their hometowns and because of work-life balance made many of them did not return. 

He also said that many of the legal professionals also figured out other alternate career options.

Seema Jhingan, Partner & Co-Founder, LexCounsel Law Office said that law as a profession is tough that requires a tremendous amount of hard work and more than that it needs passion. 

She also added that the young generation partly noticed that legal work is intense which is not.         

In addition to this, the panellist asks the young generation to look at the legal profession from another perspective, whole 12 to 14 hours of working 4 to 6 hours in the sector takes for personal development.

Pandit added to this pointer and suggested to the young talent who aspire to come in the legal field, ‘‘It is a learning through absorption, you only get to know when you are in the thick of it.’’

Concluding the session, Pranav Mehra, Director, of Legal Freshworks and also the moderator of the session said that understanding the expectations of the juniors and implementing in the form of an achievable program will solve the issue of attrition in the sector.