Technology, generational shifts are changing law firms
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Elizabeth J. Stewart, managing partner, Murtha Cullina LLP
Current trends, particularly technology, are having an impact on not only the practice of law but also the management of law firms.
“When I started practicing in 1986, it was a big deal if you got a fax or a FedEx, and you'd come back from court and there would be a pile of pink while-you-were-out slips,” said Elizabeth J. Stewart, managing partner at Murtha Cullina LLP. “E-mail rules the day now, although my younger lawyers would tell me that it's positively ancient technology.”
Such changes can bring challenges for firms in which the staff is comprised of attorneys spanning several generations, or “dinosaurs and pups,” according to Stanley A. Twardy, Jr., Day Pitney LLC's managing partner. At that firm, older lawyers who are less comfortable with technology typically are assigned to an administrative assistant who otherwise serves younger, more self-sufficient attorneys, ensuring that the administrative work load is spread evenly, and the ratio of attorneys to assistants has increased dramatically. “Things that were being done by legal administrators a decade ago are now being done by attorneys themselves,” Twardy said, adding that technology has also decreased the need for extensive law libraries that were once a fixture in all large firms.
Stewart sees generational differences at her firm too. Older attorneys expect their colleagues to come to their offices for face-to-face conversations, but the younger associates prefer to communicate electronically. Younger attorneys often are uncomfortable using administrative help, and one recent college graduate who joined the firm was even uncomfortable having people call her on her office telephone. “She said she'd never picked up a telephone and placed a call,” Stewart said. “They text.”
The speed of technology also has increased expectations regarding response time, Stewart said. “Before, when we used mail, a few days could go by before you could get back to somebody, but now if you're not back to somebody in 15 minutes, they're moving on to another lawyer.”
While technology has not yet helped speed the often-glacial pace of trials and other legal proceedings, it has increased the volume of documents attorneys file, Stewart said. “When you had to use a typewriter to compose everything, it kept you from creating lots of stuff, so I think people do file a lot more things now because it's easy.”
Twardy also sees changes in hiring and promotion practices as a result of the financial pressures law firms now face. Gone is the traditional expectation that all young attorneys will be on the partnership track, or even that they will want to follow that route.
“Our growth will be more measured going forward,” he said. “You're not seeing as many first-year associates and more new graduates are becoming contract lawyers, who are people we bring in to review documents and pay at a lower hourly rate, rather than people who will move up through the ranks of firms and become partners.”
Robert B. Cox, a partner and member of the management team at Halloran & Sage LLP, thinks it will still be possible for qualified attorneys to earn partnerships, but he notes that many lawyers are taking advantage of more flexibility in the workplace.
“Part of being an equity partner is generating business, mentoring associates and being involved in administration, and some people don't want to wear all those hats,” he said. “They just want to practice law, so if you don't want to have a balancing act and do all those things, there still may be a role for you here — something that's not as traditional as equity partners.”
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