Almost every leader experiences the same dilemma: are they pushing people too hard to get things done or are they too soft and empathetic such that people don’t perform up to par. This is Joseph Folkman’s Harvard Business Review article from May 2022 that I found quite provocative — it suggests that balance is
Law Firm Human Resources
How Should Senior In-House Counsel Respond to Uncontrolled Social Media Postings

How Should Senior In-House Counsel Respond to Uncontrolled Social Media Postings:
One of my Edge International colleagues, Jonathan Middleburgh, who is both an organizational psychologist and a barrister, is publishing a newsletter on Substack for general counsel. (You may remember him as the individual in our team who was responsible for the Edge International global
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Innovators Reduce Employment Problems for Leading Law Grads

Legal Innovators, a new company in Washington D.C., intends to level the playing field for talented law graduates who have been overlooked by major law firms due to the rising costs of hiring new graduates.
Co-founders Jonathan Greenblatt, long-time arbitration attorney at Shearman, and Bryan…
“Davis Polk: Racist? Or Just a Cold Law Firm?”

I invite you to check out an article at law.com entitled “Davis Polk: Racist? Or just A Cold Law Firm?”, in which Vivia Chen reminds readers that it can be pointless to institute equity measures at a law…
Flexibility a Key to Employee Satisfaction – Even in Law Firms
Writing in Inc., leadership specialist Marcel Schwantes predicts that traditional companies that want to hire and retain “the best” will need to adopt a principle set out by Microsoft founder Bill Gates several years ago: they will need to get more flexible.
As we discussed in a previous post, many valuable employees are…
Employees Who Work Remotely Can Help the Bottom Line
In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Barbara Z. Larson and Cirrus Foroughi share 2017 Gallup Poll and 2018 US Census data indicating that about 40 percent of U.S. employees work from home at least some of the time, and that about 5 percent work exclusively from home.…
Wellness Escalating: This Time via Parental Leave
It is great to see another news item on The American Lawyer website that puts a spotlight on the mental health and wellness of those employed in law firms. In this case, the focus is on how Paul Hastings LLP – like several other major firms recently – has upped its game a notch in…
We Must End Abusive Behavior toward Articling Students, Junior Lawyers, and Law-Firm Staff
A recent article in The Toronto Star draws attention to a widespread problem that should concern every lawyer in our profession. It describes the growing number of reports to the Discrimination and Harassment Counsel of the Law Society of Ontario by articling students who describe the firms that employ them as “abusive workplaces.” Specific examples…
Lawyer Well-Being: An Issue We Must Address Right Now
There may never have been a better time to read The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change, a 2017 report by the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being.
The Report “defines well-being and sheds light on the lack of well-being in the legal profession.” It then “offers concrete, actionable recommendations on…
Pull up a Chair: The Virtual Lunch Meeting
In an interesting fusion of technology and food, a company called eatNgage is offering users the opportunity to participate in virtual lunch meetings with groups of staff, clients, colleagues or others.
The rationale? People are more likely to look forward to, and show up for, a meeting that involves a meal than one that takes…