Smart, hard-working but forward-thinking Millennials are changing the culture of law
Margot Freedman //November 19, 2018//
Smart, hard-working but forward-thinking Millennials are changing the culture of law
Margot Freedman //November 19, 2018//
Headlines are filled with the impact Millennials are having on the status quo. Said to be changing the way of the workplace, they are typically characterized as less “pushy” than previous generations while holding stronger convictions.
Millennials are now set to define a new generation of business leadership, moving through their 30s and assuming senior positions. The legal industry – known for its aversion to change and tendency to cling to tradition (after all, lawyers were among the first to move from Word Perfect to Word) — is not exempt from this leadership transformation. This should be unsurprising where Millennials practicing aw now outnumber Baby Boomers and Gen Xers – accounting for 43 percent of attorneys. A recent survey by Cushman & Wakefield found that, by 2025, more than 50 percent of practicing attorneys in the U.S. will be Millennials. Boomers and Gen Xers are retiring and with them is going the traditional, strictly hierarchical law firm structure.
Law firm culture has historically been about the big office with a view, crushing hours and face time required to make partner – all symbols that you have arrived. Boomer-led firms lived and died by the billable hour, imposing exorbitant expectations on junior attorneys to churn revenue.
But the old model is, in many firms, being flipped on its head. Smart, hard-working but forward-thinking Millennials are changing firm culture.
So what do Millennials look for in a legal workspace?
Our wish list includes the following:
It is clear that Millennials are reshaping the legal industry, and Millennials in firm leadership across the country have already embraced many of these trends and policies. For better or worse, Millennials, who are expected to surpass Boomers next year as the United States’ largest living adult generation, are changing the legal workplace and indeed the very structure of law firms.
Margot Freedman Alicks is a shareholder of Broxterman Alicks McFarlane PC (BAM), a Denver family law firm she co-founded with her Millennial partners, Heather Sanders Broxterman and Kyle Christina McFarlane, in 2015. She brings years of experience in diverse legal issues to the firm, including family, corporate, and fiduciary law. Contact her at [email protected] or at 303-331-6432.