With young lawyers today rethinking everything from work-life balance to career aspirations, and in-house departments at companies across a variety of sizes and sectors ramping up their hiring, India’s law firms are finding it a challenge to hold on to top talent. Law firms now realise they need to rethink their talent retention strategies in a major way if they are to remain competitive for the long term.
WITH ATTRITION ON THE RISE, PARTICULARLY AT THE MORE JUNIOR LEVELS, WHAT KIND OF TALENT RETENTION STRATEGIES ARE YOU EMPLOYING?
Suneeth Katarki and Avimukt Dar, founding partners, IndusLaw
Post-COVID there has been a shift in the professional work dynamics. We have noticed that the trends are cyclical and not permanent in nature. About a year back, we had a patch like all other law firms, where we lost talent to in-house and start-up eco-system. However, now we feel that the trend has reversed with a lot of former colleagues looking forward to re-joining us. We are also seeing many applications from start-ups and companies to return to private practice. We feel that cross-pollination of talent from private practice to corporates, and vice-versa is in the best interest of all stakeholders.
Specifically, when we faced higher attrition about a year back, we made a lot of changes to accommodate the changing aspirations and expectations. Apart from investing time in developing a cohesive culture led by partners, we also made efforts to understand the stress points and mitigate them. Part of the issue was a sudden increase in workflow immediately toward the later part of the pandemic. We expanded teams and identified and tried to ensure that associates workload was balanced. We tried to ensure that everyone took breaks/leave regularly. Many of our colleagues were allowed to go on sabbatical for a few months and then re-joined. We also did a mid-term compensation correction for our lawyers based on feedback received. By launching various initiatives, we also paid particular attention to mental well-being and continued to nurture the fun aspects through various online/physical engagement activities and offsites.
Anirban Das, chief people officer, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan
Law firms are losing a lot of talent to the corporates as it is perceived that the work-life balance in a corporate is better than that in a law firm. Also, the responsibility of developing a practice and managing clients in law firms can be taxing compared to an in-house counsel in a corporate. We are not facing any challenge in retaining the talent at mid and senior levels. However, losing talent at the entry-level is undoubtedly an issue.
Some of the steps which law firms can take to stem this flight of talent are: To stem the flight of talent law firms can encourage partners to have authentic conversations on career growth and development with their team members and ensure that constant feedback is being given on work and is not left only as an annual appraisal exercise. There will be more engagement when there is a culture of continuous feedback.
Law firms can also look at offering work flexibility like flexible hours, telecommuting etc., to the lawyers, especially working mothers. Many law firms see a decline of female lawyers at the mid and top level because, with the work commitments in a law firm, sometimes it becomes difficult for working mothers to manage both the profession and home. Hence, they prefer to move to corporates for a relatively relaxed work-life balance.
Also, it’s crucial to ensure that communication from the top is clear down the line so everyone is aligned with the firm’s goals.
Shweta Shroff Chopra, partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas
COVID has resulted in talent disengagement (whether through “quiet quitting” or resignations) being the greatest challenge for all businesses.
While much has been written about addressing this issue – whether it is pre-empting burnout, creating purposeful work, fostering true inclusion or mental wellness, none of these can be effective in isolation. There is a need for holistic change to the hustle culture that we are an intrinsic part of. clients, courts, and law firms all have an equal role to play towards the goal of creating a more engaged profession. This involves embracing the humanness of people and questioning the way things have always been done. Workplaces would benefit from supporting individuals in developing greater self-awareness and encouraging them to set boundaries (on deadlines, work expectations and toxic behaviour) in a respectful and empathetic way. This will go some way in making relationships at work less transactional and more wholesome and hopefully address this problem.
Ankita Singh, partner, A&P Partners
The primary reason for attrition in law firms is work-life disbalance. Traditionally, law firms in India have had gruelling working hours when important deals are on. With the Covid pandemic, the perception has changed in many ways. Many people seek a balance between their careers and their lives outside work, leading to a spike in attrition in law firms.
We have seen a few people quitting law firms to explore an in-house job profile. We have also had many young lawyers wanting to join us, as we are a young team working on some interesting sectors where laws are evolving. We provide scope to work in an exciting environment and on niche sectors such as technology, cryptocurrency, NFT, OTT platforms, data, meta and influencers space. Apart from this, we have increased some perks too. We offer bonuses twice a year, have increased the number of holidays available during the year, introduced a very liberal work-from-home policy, and offered flexible working hours for new mothers beyond the mandatory leave. We are also taking our lawyers’ mental health issues with absolute sincerity. We have been extending all help we can if anyone has a personal, health or family problem, and they can avail of additional benefits. We see our lawyers as individuals, not resources.
