Page 20 - CLT032221

20 ¦ MARCH 22, 2021 NEWS

¦ From LAW OFFICES on PAGE 19 ly one if it doesn’t work out.
“We talked to generations below “When it comes to growing the
Gen X and they have long thought firm at senior levels, you have to
of work as a thing, not a place,” fill that intel gap,” he said. “There
Pearson said. already was one, and the pan-
While most people her team demic added more layers. We have
polled at Pillsbury prior to the pan- Lateral hiring and client firms hiring partners that have no
demic preferred working mostly interactions are going intention of ever setting foot in an
in the office, that has shifted into to look different after office at their new firm.”
a more “meet in the middle” ap- the pandemic, a panel of
proach. experts said Tuesday at Technology + Human = Effec-
ALM’s Legalweek(year). tive
“Most want two to three days
one way or the other, in the office Melissa Prince, chief client value
or out,” she said. “But challenges and innovation officer at Ballard
come with that.” Spahr, said that, while internal fac-
Those challenges include mak- ing communications technology
ing sure that the people who are was well in use prior to the pan-
coming in on certain days are able demic, client-facing tech was not.
to get what they need from the office environment, “I think of client-facing technology as being a
such as having their peers or mentors there on the pandemic baby,” she said. “It was being rolled out
same days. with limited success with partners before that point.
“We need to make sure that training opportuni- But the pandemic changed everything.”
ties are there when they are,” she said. “And to make She said her team, which relies mostly on Micro-
sure we have a meaningful number of people in the soft applications such as Teams (video meetings),
office at any given time.” Sharepoint (client portals) and Power BI (business
intelligence dashboards), really made strong use of
those tools during the pandemic, and it allowed her
Lateral Transparency
This also applies to laterals and how they can be firm to stay in close contact with clients and provide
integrated into the office culture. value adds.
“There is a different kind of puzzle now,” Michael It didn’t hurt internal processes, either.
Ellenhorn, founder and CEO of Decipher, said at the “Our expectation was that, if you had a meeting,
panel. “And this one is 3-D and you are doing it with you had to fly there,” she said. “Now we are able
a blindfold.” to communicate via Teams, Zoom, WebEx, it’s not
He said previously the modus operandi of most likely you will have to travel for a one-hour meet-
firms was to hire the people with the best qualifi- ing.”
cations and best technical skills and put them in a But the question now is how firms develop poli-
room, and they would figure problems out. But, he cies around who should travel, either for internal
said, it doesn’t work like that anymore. meetings or to see clients, and whether the clients,
“We need to know more about the people we are knowing that an in-person meeting is possible, will
onboarding,” he said. “It has certainly been our ex- still take to videoconferencing.
perience that the best way to integrate attorneys and Ellenhorn said the best way to know the answer to
professional staff is to hire the right people to begin that is to really take a look at client relationships and
with. And in a hybrid environment that requires a be frank about their level of intimacy.
high level of transparency.” “Having an honest appraisal of where your client
Ellenhorn noted that, even in the best of times, relationships really stand,” he said. “Will be vitally
hiring at the partner level is a 50/50 game and a cost- important as we come through this.”
¦

CONNECTICUT
Law Tribune