With COVID-19 changing the face of work across all sectors, Indian law firms may face the loss of an unexpected number of legal professionals across all experience levels due to persistent challenges in the industry such as long hours and packages that are becoming less attractive, according to legal recruitment and consulting firm Vahura.
According to Vahura’s Best Law Firms to Work Study, 2022, around half of 1,450 survey respondents from more than 300 law firms across India said they are not considering long-term positions with their current firms.
One of the most important drivers of this attrition of talent may be unsustainable working hours
“Around 44 percent of professionals stated that they worked over 10 hours per day on average. Within this segment, around 45 percent of professionals who reported working between 10-12 hours a day, reported that they routinely felt stressed and tense during a workday,” says Balanand Menon, partner and head of consulting at Vahura, tells Asian Legal Business.
According to Menon the number of professionals who reported feeling routinely stressed and tense during a workday jumped to 70 percent among those who worked more than 12 hours a day. The longer hours professionals worked, the more stress they felt.
And in a profession that already demands prolonged working hours, the days have gotten even longer throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when legal professionals took to working remotely and were expected to reply to clients promptly.
This year’s survey ran from March 4 to May 8, a period during which law firms that had adopted remote working were beginning the transition back to the office. The transition out of the office and then back gave many professionals a better understanding of different working modes.
“The attrition rate is definitely higher after the COVID-19 onset. A worrying number of law firm professionals report being stressed and anxious during this period,” says Menon.
Even worse, “there is little that their firms are doing to ensure that they can strike a reasonable balance between their personal and professional lives.”
Menon says that among professionals who reported working between 10-12 hours a day, only 39 percent said their firms encouraged them to strike a balance between their personal and professional commitments.
The lack of work-life balance is particularly striking for those who reported working more than 12 hours a day. Only 18 percent of such professionals reported that their firms encouraged them to maintain work-life balance and only 44 percent of such professionals reported that their firm allows them to take time off work whenever necessary.
A lack of adequate compensation for the significant amount of effort professionals put into their work could make things worse. As it is, less than half of lawyers working in smaller firms are satisfied with their packages.
“Less than 50 percent of survey participants working in firms with less than 250 professionals, believe that they are adequately compensated for the work they do and have reported being dissatisfied with the performance-driven variable pay that they receive,” Menon shares.
The survey classifies law firms by the number of staff, namely firms with 10-50 professionals, 51-250 professionals and 250+.
Another issue is poor management. A separate 2021 Vahura study on operational challenges within law firms found that poor management of a wide range of work and the lack of processes to ascertain staffing requirements result in professionals being assigned to matters despite their inability to reasonably take on more work.
“This is a challenge that most law firm professionals continue to face on a routine basis with little to no respite in sight. As a result, law firm professionals feel tremendous pressure and have high burnout and turnover rates.”
For the lawyers who are considering leaving, the survey showed a wide range of options up for consideration.
For those who still want to stay in this profession with their current practice, the survey showed that they might consider moving to a different firm within the same practice area, such as an inter-national firm that might have a different working culture.
Legal professionals might also consider moving to an in-house legal team for an Indian or multinational company. Moving to a shared services legal department of companies involved in finance or manufacturing is another potentially appealing option.
Looking for more flexible work, legal professionals, might freelance or seek secondment opportunities. Some might want to set up their own practices.
Leaving the profession is another option. Some survey participants considered switching to areas such as journalism, management, think tanks or taking the entrepreneurial plunge, says Menon. Other wants to leave their firms to upskill or pursue higher education.
Even as more legal professionals consider making a change, Menon says there are measures law firms could take to limit talent attrition. Firms could put in place partner-led committees in association with HR teams to act as custodians of firm culture and overall well-being.
And, when it comes to long hours, Menon thinks law firms should actively recognise and prioritise mental health to address the pervasive stress and burnout. Law firms could also consider moving to a hybrid work model.
Equally important, law firms should reframe their compensation strategies from a total rewards perspective and not just a uni-dimensional compensation approach.
