NALP Bulletin, May 2007
The table below reports on the training and evaluation items that were included in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers for the first time in 2006. Some of these practices vary by firm size, although not necessarily in a consistent pattern.
Overall, upward reviews are not the norm but are more typical of smaller firms, as is rotation for junior associates. Evaluations are typically annual, and about three-quarters of firms do not count training time toward billable hours.
Of the approximately 1,600 unique offices listing in the 2006-2007 Directory, the response rate to these items varied from about 75% to 97%. Percentages are based on offices that answered that question.
Overall, more than 80% of firms in the 2006-2007 Directory indicated that they have a professional development staff, and, not surprisingly, the larger the firm, the more likely it is to have a professional development staff, with nearly 100% of firms of 701 or more lawyers reporting a PD staff.
Training and Evaluation as Reported by Firms for 2006 —
By
Firm Size (Number of Lawyers)
| Total | 50 or fewer | 51-100 | 101-250 | 251-500 | 501-700 | 701+ | |
| Evaluation is: (1,549) | |||||||
| Annual | 69.0% | 70.6% | 69.4% | 67.0% | 64.9% | 75.4% | 71.9% |
| Semi-annual | 27.8 | 19.1 | 26.0 | 31.2 | 31.6 | 24.6 | 25.7 |
| Other | 3.3 | 10.3 | 4.6 | 1.8 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 2.4 |
| Upward reviews? (1,313) | |||||||
| Yes | 33.0 | 49.4 | 48.3 | 31.5 | 23.1 | 41.2 | 33.0 |
| No | 67.0 | 50.6 | 51.7 | 68.5 | 76.9 | 58.8 | 67.0 |
| Professional Development Staff? (1,355) | |||||||
| Yes | 81.9 | 31.7 | 58.5 | 70.0 | 87.4 | 92.5 | 99.7 |
| No | 18.1 | 68.3 | 41.5 | 30.0 | 12.6 | 7.5 | 0.3 |
| Billable hours credit for training time? (1,206) | |||||||
| Yes | 25.6 | 29.0 | 35.0 | 14.9 | 29.4 | 29.8 | 24.1 |
| No | 74.5 | 71.0 | 65.0 | 85.1 | 70.6 | 70.2 | 75.9 |
| Rotation for junior associates? (1,389) | |||||||
| Yes | 16.0 | 40.0 | 13.9 | 14.3 | 14.6 | 12.8 | 14.6 |
| No | 72.3 | 44.2 | 69.2 | 72.0 | 75.9 | 74.4 | 76.4 |
| Case by case | 11.7 | 15.8 | 16.9 | 13.7 | 9.5 | 12.8 | 8.9 |
Note: Not all offices/firms answered all of these items, and about 35 did not
answer any of the items. The number responding to each item is shown in
parentheses above. The item on mentoring is not shown above because 99% of
offices responding to this item reported having a mentoring program.
Source:
2006-2007 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. Includes firms in Canada
but not in Europe or Asia.
