AttorneyAssessment.com
High turnover in the legal industry costs the largest 400 US law firms approximately $9.1 Billion annually – 46% of new associates are gone within their first three years and almost half of them leave law altogether.
Boston, MA (PRWEB) April 13, 2016
The Right Profile, a leader in talent analytics, today announced its Attorney Assessment product suite for the legal market - the second industry solution from its subscription-based SaaS talent analytics platform. The product suite aims to help reduce the career dissatisfaction and high turnover levels that run rampant in the legal industry.
Although technology has made huge progress in the legal industry the last decade to increase the efficiency of practicing law, the human side – how law students determine their practice areas, how firms recruit, develop and retain attorneys, and even how college students answer the simple question of “should I go to law school?”, has changed little in the past 40 years. This lack of focus on the human side results in a huge cost to attorneys, law firms and their clients – 46% of new associates are gone within their first three years at a firm and lateral partners suffer similar turnover rates. All in, turnover costs the largest 400 US law firms nearly $9.1 billion annually, and more than 20% of practicing associates will leave the practice of law altogether when they leave their first law firm job.
“The first step in solving any of these issues is better understanding attorneys” said Mark Levin, Co-Founder of The Right Profile. “Thousands of attorneys have already taken our Attorney Assessment and we see a number of clear links between certain profiles and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with specific practice areas, practice settings, or the practice of law generally.”
Assessments currently are not popular in the legal market, but that is changing as turnover costs continue to rise. Although 89% of the Fortune 100 companies use psychometric assessments in their hiring process, currently less than 5% of the Am Law 250 use assessments. Levin continued, “Our research and work with our law firm customers show two key areas where assessments can really help move the needle for law firms: attorney development and hiring.”
Purpose-built to help attorneys and law firms ameliorate turnover issues, The Right Profile’s Attorney Assessment system focuses on both attorney development and hiring. It was developed after a multi-year study of the traits and satisfaction levels of thousands of practicing attorneys in 26 practice areas and 10 different work settings. On the development side, Attorney Assessment provides detailed insights for individual attorneys, supervising attorneys and professional development staff who work with individual attorneys to improve individual effectiveness and growth. Examples of Attorney Assessment report material for management and development of attorneys include a list of the individual’s distinguishing characteristics, a narrative on their four styles of working as an attorney, individual trait comparisons to national attorney norms and personalized guidance for best dealing with common working scenarios. There is even a detailed mentoring guide for the attorneys tasked with mentoring or coaching a new attorney - providing insights and suggested activities to best help the individual reach their full potential.
“Our people are our competitive advantage,” says M. Shaun McGaughey, attorney and Executive Vice President of Koley Jessen law firm in Omaha, NE. “The Right Profile will help us continue to improve in ways we were unable to without that tool, which will further enhance our growing business” added McGaughey, whose law firm was one of the four law firm beta-testers of the Attorney Assessment system.
With regards to hiring, the Attorney Assessment system allows attorneys and firms to find a better mutual ‘fit’ by identifying the trait patterns or ‘profiles’ that fit specific firm cultures and various practice groups. “Understand those profiles plus attorney satisfaction and performance levels, and you have a way of finding a longterm member of your firm,” Levin concluded. Towards this end, the Attorney Assessment system leverages patent-pending talent analytics to provide ground-breaking new capabilities for hiring, including scientifically predicting actual performance (e.g., hours billed, origination potential, etc.), measuring ‘fit’ or similarity between the individual and a law firm, practice group or team to ensure cohesiveness or add “mental diversity” to a group and matching individuals in the firm most similar mentally to the assessed individual. This output and more is found in a comprehensive hiring report designed to meet EEOC guidelines for validity and nondiscrimination.
The Attorney Assessment also provides guidance to law students before they become attorneys. Most law students have little idea what practice areas or practice settings might be a good fit for them and their careers are often determined by whatever practice group needed them most in their first law firm job.
Attorney Assessment provides the tools to help law students and career guidance counselors identify a student’s best fit options for a happy, prosperous legal career. Attorney Assessment reporting compares one’s relevant underlying traits to The Right Profile’s proprietary database of thousands of practicing attorneys with easy to understand visual feedback. Reports include personalized fit analysis for 26 practice areas and 12 legal work settings, trait analysis & comparison to thousands of practicing attorneys worldwide, narrative detailing one's four working styles & distinguishing characteristics, personalized guidance for 10 common working scenarios, and mentoring insights & suggested activities for career counselors to best work with the assessed individual.
The Right Profile is exhibiting at the National Association of Legal Placement (NALP) annual education conference, booth # 203.
About The Right Profile, LLC
The Attorney Assessment product suite comes from The Right Profile, a leader in talent analytics integrating the latest technologies with predictive methodologies in behavioral science that transforms the way organizations select, coach and develop talent. The company’s cloud-based platform of assessments, reports and exercises help individuals and organizations in the worlds of athletics, law and business. Customers include the New England Patriots, Kansas City Royals, University of Southern California (USC), Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Performance Trust Capital Partners. For more information, visit http://www.therightprofile.com.