Harvard Law’s “The Practice”: Joe Macrae on What Makes the Perfect Partner
““The top firms have always been driven by finding people who are highly skilled at whatever area of law they’re specializing in and can be showcased to clients as leaders in the field.” But as the marketplace has become more crowded and competitive, “being a great lawyer is no longer enough.”
- Joe Macrae
How does the global legal market define the perfect partner? What qualities are firms seeking in lateral partner hires, and what are candidates looking for in a firm? How have these changed over time? These are some of the questions Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession addressed in the latest issue of The Practice Magazine, tapping Macrae Founder and Chairman Joe Macrae for insight.
Here, key excerpts from the article, Recruiting Market Insights:
Macrae says that “the top firms have always been driven by finding people who are highly skilled at whatever area of law they’re specializing in and can be showcased to clients as leaders in the field.” But, he says, as the marketplace has become more crowded and competitive, “being a great lawyer is no longer enough.” He says:
In almost all cases, the firms are asking, Is this individual naturally skilled with people? Are they going to be able to either join our firm and bring clients so that they’re growing the pie, or if they’re in an area where one doesn’t naturally bring clients, are they somebody whom we can put in front of our most important institutional client and they’re going to feel that they are not just technically good, but interpersonally impressive and inspiring confidence?
Macrae’s comments highlight three critical points about the market and the ideal partner. First, firms are looking for subject-area experts with deep technical expertise. Second, people skills are key, primarily vis-à-vis relationships with clients. And, while the combination of these factors drives to the heart of firm profitability, the starting point is not primarily raw dollars and cents.
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Among the changes in the past few decades, Macrae says, is that law firms are being transparent or up-front about one of the key drivers in their quest to hire more-diverse lawyers. “Firms tell us they are under extreme pressure from their clients about the composition of the teams pitching and managing their business,” he says. “And so quite apart from anything else, if your client’s saying to you, unless you produce a more diverse team on the next pitch, you won’t be on it, that is about as compelling a message as they’re going to hear to change the demographic of their law firm.”
The firms that see the value—morally and ethically—are still going to invest in diversity.
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It’s a dynamic time to be watching the profession, says Macrae, with the sheer volume of moves in recent years and new compensation heights reached in the “war for talent.” How firms manage all of this while maintaining culture and developing homegrown talent is part of the challenge. Particularly coming out of Covid-19 there is renewed focus on the importance of mentorship. “At its core, the law firm partner’s job is in part to train more-junior lawyers so that they can grow their skills and join the partnership,” he says. “I think that ability not just to deploy good people skills, to go out and get clients and retain clients, but also to motivate and train and bring on more-junior lawyers in the law firm is super important.”
What’s hard, he goes on, is finding time. “How do you carve out time to do all of that and be a good mentor when you’ve also got the pressure of billing 2,000 hours plus, bringing in $X million of business, and satisfying the demands of the client?” Macrae says.
We encourage you to read the article in full: Recruiting Market Insights