Every year, the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) hosts its annual Professional Development Institute (PDI) conference, offering opportunities for those involved in legal training and professional development to learn from their peers about the trends and latest advancements. And last year’s conference, which took place Dec. 4-5, in Washington, D.C., was no exception. Among the insights that were shared:
Shifting Away from the Traditional Apprenticeship Approach
Hybrid work models, technology disruption, and generational change have weakened the effectiveness of learning solely through observation, which law firms and other professional services organizations have relied on for decades.
Several forces are rendering this apprenticeship approach insufficient for legal. Those include hybrid distributed work; tech and workflow disruption; leadership skill gaps; generational expectation misalignment; and traditional norms that no longer fit the modern workforce. The result is that one in four associates is considering leaving their firm within the first year–and underrepresented attorneys experience faster attrition, signaling gaps in inclusiveness and developmental support.
In today’s market, retention is increasingly shaped by three factors:
- Culture
- Talent development
- Leadership quality
Many firms are struggling with the leadership skills gap. According to information shared at the conference, more than half, 52%, of lawyers step into leadership roles without any leadership training.
In order to improve retention and find alternatives to the traditional apprenticeship model, firms must transition toward intentional, structured, inclusive, and measurable development models.
The Greatest Challenge Today: Generational Differences
Firms continue to report friction between generations. Junior and senior attorneys are talking past each other. On both sides of the generation gap, many are quick with judgments and exhibit poor assumption‑checking. Abrasion is leading to disengagement and turnover. And associates prefer near‑peer interactions over intimidating senior partners. For example, many young attorneys aren’t excited about activities such as the traditional dinners with partners to welcome summer and new associates. In fact, many find them scary and would prefer to interact with junior associates.
New associates also express uncertainty and often feel law firms are a “black box” regarding expectations, which leads to the next takeaway, about competency models.
Competency Models: Essential but Under‑Operationalized
While a majority of large law firms have competency frameworks, associates often don’t understand them. Many firms are also just beginning to ramp up their use and they are not well integrated into the operations of the law firm or individual attorneys.
For those that are using these models, these are among the core competencies:
- Legal skills (research, writing, framing for clients)
- Work product quality
- Responsiveness and expectation management
- Problem solving and judgment
- Verbal communication and professionalism
- Work and time management
- Firm citizenship/contributions
- People management
- Client readiness
Among strengths are core legal skills and attitude, while challenges include responsiveness, professionalism, proactivity, workload management, and balancing self‑needs with firm expectations.
Gaps in Mindset and Professional Identity
During the conference, there was a great deal of conversation about the mindset that young associates have and the mindset that they need to develop. For example, many new associates hold a student mindset, which manifests as waiting for direction; seeking the “right answer” rather than showing judgment; struggling to manage competing deadlines; and a strong focus on work‑life balance language without understanding professional norms.
Yet the firm has very different needs for its young associates, such as anticipating needs, asking questions early, providing analysis, and engaging with firm culture.
Human skills, such as communication, self‑management, collaboration, and leadership, will increasingly differentiate successful lawyers. Attendees at the conference shared several effective practices for managing these gaps and helping attorneys master these human skills. These include stay interviews (where firms seek an honest assessment of how associates are about the environment and culture), reverse mentoring, creating spaces for “elephant in the room” conversations, meeting talent where they are with transparent communication, and incorporating human skills into competency models.
Law schools are also evolving to help close these gaps through tools like orientation programming, Career Services Office (CSO) curriculum, ABA Standard 303(b) professional identity formation, and pre‑summer programming for rising 2Ls/3Ls. Examples of these approaches include:
- Modeling responsiveness and stressing consequences of missed deadlines
- Teaching cross‑cultural communication and difficult conversations
- Integrating tech, networking, wellbeing, and growth mindset content
- Providing internship readiness guides, along with role plays, externships, and skills‑based repetitions.
Overall Takeaway
After two days of excellent sessions and good conversation, it’s clear that the profession seems to be moving toward intentional, data‑driven, competency‑based, and human‑skills‑oriented development. Past precedent can and should not necessarily determine what comes next — firms must redesign leadership, learning, and talent models to meet today’s realities.
To learn more about how BARBRI can help put these ideas into action, please visit: www.skillburst.com/professional-skills
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