For decades, law firms have operated on a talent model legal industry veteran Gene Commander calls “catch and release”: recruit promising young lawyers, invest heavily in training them, integrate them into the firm — and then watch a significant percentage of them walk out the door.
The model is expensive. It is also deeply ingrained. Commander said, “Changing it will require law firm leaders to rethink not only how they develop and retain lawyers, but how they value their time, structure hybrid work and define leadership itself.”
The former Denver office managing shareholder of Polsinelli, who now advises firms through Gene Commander Inc., described talent-market instability and the shift to hybrid work as intertwined pressures facing law firms. The challenge is particularly acute for small and midsize firms, which have less financial cushion to absorb the costs of repeated turnover.
“What we call the catch-and-release model is our way of criticizing the traditional approach to talent acquisition, development and career advancement that has become common in many law firms, of all sizes, across the country,” he explained.
After firms recruit top talent, they pour time and money into onboarding, training, socialization, cultural integration and client development. Yet when lawyers leave, firms rarely have a strategy in place to bring them back.
Why Lawyers Leave
Commander said firms often assume compensation is the primary reason lawyers leave. It matters, but it is only part of the picture.
Young lawyers who step away may not feel valued or respected, he said, or may feel like they are little more than “a billing machine.”
Commander said, “If you don’t feel like you belong, you will find someplace where you feel like you do. That’s just human nature.” He noted that women and people of color leave firms in higher numbers than their colleagues.
The problem, Commander said, has a generational dimension. He believes baby boomers were more willing to let their careers define their personal identities and, to some extent, their family lives.
“Millennials and now the Gen Zs, they aren’t willing to let their careers define who they are,” he said. “They don’t perceive the same benefits, and they aren’t willing to make the same sacrifices.”
That doesn’t mean one approach is right and the other is wrong, he continued. It means law firms need to recognize and respect different perspectives — and then “stitch them together” into businesses capable of serving clients effectively.
‘Investment Time’ Versus ‘Nonbillable Hours’
One of Commander’s proposed mindset shifts is linguistic as much as economic: Stop referring to everything that doesn’t immediately generate a bill as “nonbillable time.” He prefers “investment time.”
Time spent developing lawyers, strengthening teams, building client relationships, establishing a firm’s stature in the community or experimenting with new technology and workflows may not generate immediate revenue. “If you don’t invest a certain amount of time into those things that are not immediately billable, you’re going to reduce your opportunities to have billable time in the future,” Commander said.
The distinction becomes increasingly important as firms move away from relying solely on the billable hour and toward value-based pricing. “There’s a balance between immediately billable time and long-term billable time,” he said. “They’re both investments.” Firms that appreciate the latter will be better positioned to retain talent, he said.
Mentoring Can’t Be Replaced by a Video
While firms can create video modules and asynchronous, on-demand training for basic skills, technology cannot replace the mentor-mentee relationship.
Within each practice area, firms should establish what skills lawyers need to develop and at what points in their careers. “Then experienced attorneys should work directly with younger lawyers to help them build those skills,” Commander said. “That means giving clear assignments, providing meaningful feedback and explaining not just what needs to be corrected, but how to improve. There’s no better way to teach people than to show them and coach them and then give them the opportunities to try.”
The challenge is often that more experienced lawyers were never taught how to mentor effectively. “No one showed us how to do that,” he said. “So we’re not skilled at knowing how to do that for others.”
The shift to hybrid work has complicated the mentor-mentee relationship. A meeting that could be handled remotely may not justify a commute, but a mentoring conversation, team-building exercise or opportunity for a young lawyer to observe and learn from a more experienced attorney might.
Hybrid work, Commander said, needs to be “designed with purpose,” rather than becoming another routine.
“You want to get your workplace environment, your workplace culture, to the point where everyone feels equally comfortable working in the office,” he added.
Start with the Numbers — Then Look at Leadership
For a small or midsize firm attempting to change its retention culture, Commander recommended starting with the question: “What is our attrition rate?”
Leaders should examine whether they are struggling primarily to recruit or to retain talent before looking closely at what happens to the firm’s money. “Compensation, particularly partner compensation, sets the tone for the workplace culture,” he said.
Of course, investing in talent, technology and other resources means money that might otherwise be distributed to partners is being reinvested in the business. That can be unsettling, particularly when it affects partners’ short-term income.
Commander said the ultimate question is whether a firm is willing to sacrifice some short-term revenue distribution to build a stronger enterprise — one capable of attracting, developing and retaining the lawyers it needs to succeed.
Changing the catch-and-release model “isn’t simply a matter of being a better employer,” he said. “It is a business decision.”
Editor’s note: This article is the second in a multi-part series exploring the shifting business models of Colorado law firms, with insight from Gene Commander.