Editor's letter: The winter of lawyer discontent

"In my day…" Fill in the blanks, you've heard and said it before - ?usually in relation to the hardships experienced at the beginning ?of a legal career. No doubt you remember many of the sacrifices ?that you were forced to make to get ahead all those years ago.

Working long hours and doing tedious work has always formed a key ?part of junior lawyer development. But, today's young lawyers are asking ?to be given meaningful, interesting and varied work, while performing their ?duties on flexible schedules. They don't want to just do routine work and ?they want to have work/life balance. Many partners argue that everyone ?paid their dues when starting out, so why should it be any different for ?today's young lawyers?

Of course, the world has changed significantly since your current group of partners trained to become lawyers. Back then, lawyers had job security, clients came to them for technical legal advice and they could expect a ?solidly increasing income. They could also take (almost) as much time as ?they needed to consider and respond to client queries.

Today, all of the things that were previously taken for granted in pursuing a career in law have been thrown into disarray. This has created a range of pressures on the next generation of lawyers as the market consolidates and new service providers - including legal process outsourcing providers - emerge to challenge established firms.

Many junior lawyers will not make partner; some may even be better ?suited to providing legal support services in new-model firms. Clearly, ?not every individual demand for variety and flexibility needs to be accommodated. But, your firm is at risk of losing future star performers ?if you ignore milliennials' needs altogether. Your current generation of ?partners may be good, but they are approaching retirement; they need ?to adapt to new supervision and training processes to ensure your firm ?has a next generation of partners.

At the end of the day, it's your and your partners' legacies that will ?be at risk if succession planning is left until it's too late. So don't let ?them be Scrooges in this economic winter - pay attention to the developmental needs of your junior lawyers, not just your partners' ?coffers, and your firm will receive ample rewards in the summers ?to come.

Until next time,