You can talk for hours & days about compensation issues. ALM Events recently held, in New York, “The Law Firm Partner Compensation Forum”, where managing partners, compensation experts and other specialists talked about metrics and methodologies for enhancing the transparency of partner compensation systems. All good stuff. But the bottom line in any compensation system, as one speaker kept repeating, is trust. Trust in the compensation system. Trust in the firm culture. Trust in the strategic plan. Trust that everyone (especially women, minorities and attorneys with special circumstances) are treated fairly. Before we spend more hours and more bitpoints discussing what amount of compensation (especially associate compensation) is fair and sufficient – let there be an honest discussion, at each firm, whether the compensation system is integrated with, and accurately reflects the firm culture and values. If profitability is paramount, let’s be open about this when paying associates. If other things are important too – let’s be open & honest about how much we really value those things on payday. My guess, if we were to do this, is that the current associate payscale cartels would disintegrate and we would suddenly be blessed with a lot of happier and more motivated lawyers. I’ll even bet they would be more profitable too.
