Ensuring Equity Partner Success:
An International Law Firm’s Comprehensive Selection and Development Process
An international law firm with approximately 500 attorneys and public policy advisors wanted to optimize the overall quality and level of talent of its equity partner candidates. TalentQuest worked closely with the firm’s leadership to identify three key areas for process improvement:
- Selection of Summer Interns
- Promotion of Summer Interns to Associates
- Promotion of Senior Associates to Equity Partners
It was determined that improvements in each of these areas would have the most significant impact and would support the achievement of the firm’s over-arching goal: to have the industry’s best and brightest equity partners.
TalentQuest consultants began by identifying the traits, skills, and behaviors of the firm’s most successful individuals at each level. Then we created structured processes and developed tangible, easy-to-use tools for each. Finally, we ensured the firm’s partners were adequately trained to implement the new strategies.
Selection of Summer Interns
The firm had historically based the selection of summer interns primarily on the candidate’s academic performance, personal references, and a relatively unstructured interview process. This created a group of individuals with widely varied skills and personalities, and consequently, widely varied rates of success.
TalentQuest improved the intern selection process by developing a structured approach that eliminated much of the existing process’ subjectivity. The revised process enables the firm to make more data-driven decisions with regard to selection of interns and ensures that these decisions are valid across a set of consistent criteria. Most importantly, it not only affirms that candidates are qualified for intern-level positions, but that they also have the potential to become high-quality candidates for senior-level positions.
Promotion of Summer Interns to Associates
The firm had historically relied on an unstructured, highly subjective review process to determine whether an intern should be offered a full-time position as an associate. Essentially, an intern would have had to commit an egregious error to be eliminated from consideration.
TalentQuest developed a month-long action learning and performance assessment program based on the skills and attributes of the firm’s high-performing associates. In addition to giving partners an opportunity to interact one-on-one with each intern, the new process ensures that full-time offers are only extended to those individuals who best embody the firm and the representative challenges of its clients.
Promotion of Senior Associates to Partners
The firm had historically determined these promotions based on an individual’s tenure and production levels. This had resulted in the promotion of many who were ill-equipped to handle the responsibilities of partnership. TalentQuest developed objective criteria with the creation of the Management Academy, a three-day professional development program in which senior associates who have been nominated for equity partnership participate. Although the information obtained in the Management Academy is not solely used to determine whether a senior associate advances to equity partnership, it is an important component of the overall decision-making process.
Results
Collectively, these initiatives have contributed to a more aligned, objective and measurable selection process, and over time, will greatly improve the overall stream of quality talent into equity partnership. The firm did not introduce these efforts simultaneously, but did so sequentially over several years, successfully building each one upon the success of the others.
TalentQuest has been bolstering organizational performance and advancing leadership for more than 35 years by blending the art of consulting with the science of technology. Our consultants and organizational psychologists deliver fully integrated Human Capital Management consulting services and Talent Management solutions that span the entire employee lifecycle. From talent selection to leadership succession, TalentQuest enables organizations to maximize the value of their investment in people.
