Hiring Your First Associate

Speaker A: Foreign. Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Right Hand podcast. This is where we talk about how law firm owners can build stronger, smarter and more sustainable law firms. So most lawyers, what they do is they start their firm to gain, you know, freedom or independence. But as the firm grows, new challenges appear and they conform in challenges such as hiring, leadership, operations, and profitability. So this podcast here, what we do is we explore the strategies and insights that help law firm owners move from just simply practicing law to actually running a law firm. This is brought to you by Reuben Allen and our sister company, Marshall Graham Consulting. We are your strategic right hand for growing law firms. I am Greg Copeland. Thank you and welcome back. Today, what we're going to do, um, today might be more for the solo attorneys or even it can even be for, uh, the partnership, uh, just two or three partners in a firm. Um, uh, but I think it's important because a law firm of any size can kind of learn from some of this, hopefully take some good things from it, and that is what happens. Or how do you hire your first associate? Um, so for many law firm owners, hiring the first associate is probably one of the biggest decisions they'll ever make, um, when owning a law firm. Um, because when you hire that, that person, if you're bringing someone in, basically it represents growth, um, it represents opportunity. Um, but with that it also brings in, ah, risk. Um, and for many attorneys, um, that first hire feels personal because you've built the practice yourself, you manage the chaos M. From the onset, you control the quality of the work. And now you're, you're considering bringing someone in and kind of handing some of those responsibilities to someone that you, you spent maybe years building. Um, so what we want to do is just kind of try to cover briefly when to do it, when to hire someone, bring someone in, how to bring someone, um, and the mistakes you need to avoid as a law firm owner. So most law firm owners, they remember their first associate hire. Um, and it's not because it was easy, is because they, you know, everything changed. Um, you know, so up until that point it was just the firm revolved around the founder or the founding partners. Um, you're the lawyer, you're, um, the person who produces. You're, you're the, you know, often the rainmaker. Um, but growth changes that. It creates a challenge. And with that there are more opportunities than one person can reasonably handle. So you know that you need that help. And then what happens is at that point the question becomes, can you continue to do it this way? Um, carrying all this weight or do I begin building a team? And so, you know, one of the most common mistakes in this is that law firm owners make hiring decisions or the decision to bring on that associate based solely on the workload. And it's because they're overwhelmed, or maybe their cases are piling up, the clients need more attention. And what they do is they end up rushing to hire someone just simply and only to reduce that pressure. And I get it, I understand it. But what happens when you do that? It can lead to problems. Because hiring an associate or with any position shouldn't be just to solve today's workload. Um, it should be intentional and help to support the vision of tomorrow, of the firm. Um, what the firm's gonna look like tomorrow. M. Not just today. So you ask yourself. You have to ask yourself. It's a good question. Um, you have to know when you're ready. And you have to ask yourself, can the firm consistently support another attorney? And not just today, but six months from now? Do I think I'll need this attorney? Am I, you know, do I think I'll have the same volume of work or even more in six months? Or is this just a temporary rise in whatever that pressure may be? And what about 12 months from now? Do I think I would need an associate 12 months from now? Um, and those are one of major factors that, because you don't want to bring someone, uh, because you're busy right now, and then three months from now, the work dries up and you have to let that person go. Um, the decision should be based on sustainable demand and not just temporary stress. Um, because strong firms, what they do is they hire from a position of planning rather than panic. So you have to figure out what you're really hiring for. And when I say that, um, most law firm owners focus almost entirely on legal skill, on the resumes. And now legal skill does matter. I mean, attorneys, yeah, you have to have some kind of legal skill. But that's only part of the equation. When you're hiring, you also need to be hiring for judgment. How that person, judgment is how they. The decisions they make day to day. Um, communication. Are they a good communication communicator within and outside of the firm? Um, client management. How. How is that person with clients? Um, are they a person who nurtures clients? Are they a person who turns clients off? Um, are they, uh, do they know that sweet spot on when to give their client attention and when to kind of find a way to put that client at ease? Cultural. Um, fit. Which is Very important to us. Um, that's one of the first things we look for when we help our client firms hire. It's the cultural fit. Um, because the person may have all the legal ability in the world, but they just might not be a cultural fit with that law firm owner. And that's definitely important. Um, and adaptability, are they adaptable to the situations that go on in the law firm? Um, so a technically strong lawyer who doesn't fit the firm's, you know, culture and isn't adaptable, what that does is just creates unnecessary and significant challenges. The first associate needs to be more than just, you know, a pressure reliever. Um, they need more than just a desk and a caseload. Um, what they need is clear expectations. They need defined responsibilities. And this one we're supporting. This third one, they need training. Training on how, um, the procedures and the processes of the firm, on how you want your work done. Because remember, after all, it is your business. Um, they need feedback. Are they going in the right direction? What needs to be tweaked? What can be improved? Where are they good? They also need support. Don't just dump all your problems, all your cases on that person. You're hiring them. Here, here's a pile of cases. Go do your work. No, they need that support. Um, far too many firm owners just assume that these attorneys, these associates will simply figure it out. Um, but you as a firm owner, to be successful, you have to create that structure around the onboarding process. And onboarding processes are crucial and all of that. So what you also need to do is you need a mindset shift as the owner of the firm, as the founder of the firm, um, you have to move from being the person who does all the work to become that leader, that person who develops other people. And that means you have to learn how to coach, you have to learn how to delegate correctly, you have to learn how to provide feedback. And you have to accept also that their approach to solving problems or, or communicating with clients may be slightly different than how you would do it. And you have to be okay as long as that's within the frame and the culture of the firm. Um, the long term impact of a successful hiring with, um, that first associate is it increases the capacity of the firm to bring on more. It improves the client's services, it creates opportunities for growth where you can actually bring on more, you know, bring on more clients and, and free up the, the owner maybe to go out and do more business development and bring on another attorney or another paralegal or another legal assistant. And what it also does. Most importantly, it transformed you from just having a practice into actually becoming a law firm. A working law firm business. So hiring your first associate is just simply not about reducing the workload. It's about building the future of your organization. And when you approach it thoughtfully, it becomes the most, you know, one of the most important investments a law firm owner can make. So thanks for listening to the Right Hand podcast. Um, if you're a law firm owner looking to build a stronger, more organized, and more profitable Firm, please visit www.rubin-allen.com to learn how we can help firms grow. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to share it with another law firm leader. And until next time, keep building the firm you set out to create. Thank. Mhm. You sa.