New York Lawyer
January 5, 2005

Q:
I had a mini-review recently, in which one of the lawyers who reviewed me said that work I had done on a project for her during the past year had disappointed her. She said, "I think you knew I wasn�t pleased with your work on that." (Other than that they were complimentary.) I replied that actually I had had no idea that she was disappointed, and that it would have been good to have known it at the time. I had noticed that she hadn�t give me much work since that time and had wondered why; I had even asked her whether there was an issue and she had said there wasn�t. What can you do when people won�t be straight with you?

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A:

This is a frequent problem in law firms. "No news" is not necessarily "good news." Lawyers more than other professionals have a tendency to duck giving sensitive feedback. This is fueled by a feeling that people either have it or they don�t, you can�t rehabilitate someone and that people can "get" what they need to do by seeing how a document has been rewritten or otherwise dealt with. More fundamentally, however, lawyers often lack basic feedback-giving skills, which prevents an honest, respectful exchange when a problem occurs.

Naturally the best time to give counseling about improving performance is when a problem happens. That�s when memories are fresh and when a person can actually try to fix the problem. Oftentimes lawyers will resentfully "fix" problems themselves, saying "I should have just done this myself," rather than explaining in general terms to the junior lawyer what has gone wrong and giving an opportunity to redraft the document or whatever needs to be done.

If feedback is not automatically forthcoming in your firm, you will need to be proactive to seek it out. Make it easy for people you work for to give you criticism. You can say things like, "It�s important to me to know how I did so that I can improve." Emphasize wanting to contribute to the firm and be a more effective advocate as the focus, rather than a more negative sense of carping about problems. If you do receive any sort of feedback, make sure to accept the remarks without defensiveness, and -- most important of all -- demonstrate responsiveness by correcting the problem as expeditiously as possible. Once you have gone through iteration with a partner of feedback/corrective action, the partner will feel a sense of confidence that he or she can give you straightforward comments about your work product without fear that you will have a negative reaction, and that you will demonstrate an improved document.

Sincerely,
Holly English
Principal Consultant, Values at Work