Everyone Talks About Their Law Firm's 'Culture,' But Is It Possible to Measure It? https://t.co/2yJ7jLImfk
— The American Lawyer (@AmericanLawyer) March 15, 2023
What You Need to Know
- Cultural inventories have taken a new level of importance at law firms since shifting to remote work and facing recruitment pressures.
- Another factor driving the importance of culture is the growth of business administrative staff at firms.
Legal consultant Marcie Borgal Shunk became certified to use a proprietary tool to measure business culture a decade ago. But it wasn’t until last year that a law firm hired her to measure its culture using the Chicago-based cultural inventory tool developer Human Synergistics.
Cultural inventories have been more of a staple in Fortune 500 companies than the legal industry. In law firms, similar survey-based analyses had the limited purpose of assessing merger prospects or associate retention. But in 2022, Borgal Shunk had three clients—a global law firm, a midsize regional firm and a plaintiffs firm—ask her to assess what it was like for employees to work there.
Consultants say the effort to empirically monitor culture is a holdover from the talent wars that peaked in 2021. Compensation hikes were the more visible manifestation, but today’s emphasis on culture can be seen in how much law firms are investing in talent development and retention strategies.
“There is an increased level of interest in finding a way to better understand and manage culture,” Borgal Shunk said. “In many respects, it’s driven by the fact that firms understand it’s integral to talent strategy and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.”
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