Partners Are Frustrated With ‘Zoom Associates.’ Will Threatening Their Bonuses Change That?

Consultants and partners have bluntly described some younger associates as “lacking accountability and initiative.” But surveys suggest younger lawyers and aspiring lawyers are more varied in their motivations than earlier generations.

Some law firm partners are increasingly frustrated with the quality of work and the attitudes of “Zoom associates”—those who came into firms during and since the pandemic, according to interviews with consultants and law firm leaders. Consultants and partners have even bluntly described some younger associates as “lacking accountability and initiative.”

Highlighting some of the frustration, several law firms have ramped up pressure for their attorneys—including associates—to be in the office, including tying office attendance to bonuses. At least six Am Law 100 firms have done so, with Ropes and Gray becoming one of the latest.

Heather McCullough, a partner and co-founder of Society54, said it would make sense “as a stick or carrot approach” to getting people back in the office. “I think it’s going to be what a lot of firms do to get people back,” she said.

But will measures like tying bonuses to office attendance make a difference? Will it actually lead to an improvement in associates’ skills and performance?

There are different ways of working, McCullough said. Gen X, she said, likes to work independently, while Gen Y wants to be collaborative.

“Firms have not evolved,” she said. “COVID caused us to think about how we can work differently…Is this the tipping point, where things change?”

The Frustration Is Real

Multiple interviews with consultants, law firm leaders and partners, particularly litigation partners, have revealed that many believe that associates who have come into the profession during and since the pandemic lack some skills necessary to succeed. Partners are also frustrated over the attitudes of some associates.

“There is a real challenge right now…there is [a belief] that the incoming associates lack initiative, ownership and personal responsibility,” said Marcie Borgal Shunk, founder and president of the Tilt Institute.

She said she’s heard that they aren’t meeting their billing requirements and aren’t coming asking for work.

Paul Schmidt, chair of BakerHostetler, said he does believe associates who’ve come into firms since COVID-19 “are not as far along” as the classes before them.

“We do believe there is a learning gap, a development gap that has to be addressed. And that is a big concern,” he acknowledged.

Similarly, Michael Ferachi, managing member of Louisiana-based McGlinchey Stafford, said he’s “absolutely” seeing frustration from partners about the “Zoom associates.”

“I have members who believe this group of associates don’t work as hard [as other groups did] and don’t think they need to,” he said.

But is the criticism fair?

“Some of it is generational,” he said. “It’s the ‘we walked to school barefoot uphill for three miles and they need to, too.’”

Ferachi said there are two main things behind the frustration.

“One of them is generational…’I don’t want to work as hard as you, but I want to be paid like you’…. the other is, they got used to working remotely,” he said.

However, Noah Heller, chief executive officer of Katten, said older generations always think of the next generation coming up as “they don’t get it.”

“Millennials are motivated by different things,” he said.

Differences Matter

“[Younger lawyers] don’t desire to be partner,” McCullough said. “They haven’t been shown a path that looks like something they would want to do.”

She said younger lawyers also don’t have the same desire to make money that earlier generations did. As a side note, McCullough said, the number of lawyers, particularly younger lawyers, with side gigs “is astonishing.”

There are different ways younger lawyers want to achieve, she said.

Indeed, recent surveys of young lawyers and aspiring lawyers suggest they are more varied in their motivations than their predecessors in earlier generations.

Although pay is still very important to both groups, for instance, many of them said they would also trade some compensation for things like time off and more remote work.

“Gen-Z and some of the Millennials are much more inclined to say ‘I will compromise a certain amount of income for quality-of-life and work-life balance, and I don’t need to define myself by profession,’” said Daniel Farris, Chicago office managing partner for Norton Rose Fulbright, adding, “I think they look up at partners and go, ‘That’s not what I want.’”

But consultant Lauren Krasnow said the motivations haven’t changed—“the burden of proof has.”

“Putting it in legal terms, it’s like the evidentiary standard changed,” Krasnow wrote in an email in response to questions. “Gen X, Boomers and even some Millennials use a ‘preponderance of the evidence’ standard, more or less trusting that firms will give them whatever benefits that associate needs to feel good about working there.

“But more Gen Zers [and I’m parenting two of them so I see this firsthand] use what I’d call a ‘clear and convincing evidence’ standard: ‘show me how you’ll mentor or train me, what does that look like IRL [in real life], and what does that mean for me personally — now and later.’”

That heightened standard alone isn’t the problem, she said. But it happened at the same time as remote work and “pandemic-related skill gaps,” and “the explosion of lateral moves that I believe send a signal to younger lawyers that long-term loyalty isn’t necessarily expected anymore,” Krasnow said.

Looking Through a Narrow Lens

Krasnow said that because the shift in standard hasn’t been named, people are filling “in the blanks, using our own perspective.”

“That’s why we’re hearing now, ‘associates have no initiative, they don’t want to work hard,’ from many senior lawyers, versus ‘I’ll do what’s expected of me,’ from newer lawyers,” she said.

That inability to see things from different perspectives is something that’s been noted by law firm leaders and consultants alike, who have tied it to the after-effects of the pandemic.

Heller said the pandemic affected people in myriad ways.

“It’s made us all isolated…more frustrated with others,” he said. “It changed our tolerance for others…[People] are so focused on their own perspective.”

Ferachi, of McGlinchey Stafford, agreed, saying there is less empathy and understanding post-Covid. “[It’s] easy to do during that self-isolation period,” he said. “We haven’t busted out of it yet.”

Ferachi said the situation creates a dilemma for law firm leaders.

”I need to satisfy the members who serve the clients,” he said. “But I also have to maintain our talent pool.” (Law.com)