April 3, 2015
LAW360
By Lisa Ryan
NEW YORK – BigLaw is gearing up for annual partner retreats now that spring has sprung, but it’s important for these retreats to focus on strategic planning and cross-office partner socialization in order to justify the cost of these pricey getaways. “Firms view retreats differently, but across the board, it is certainly an expense,” said Carey Bertolet, managing partner for North America for international legal recruitment firm Laurence Simons. “There are firms that use partner retreats strategically, so they have long-term planning meetings and go over financials. In that respect, retreats can be incredibly valuable.” Here are three tips for getting the biggest bang for your buck at BigLaw partner retreats. Make Face Time a Priority Given the size and scope of the modern law firm’s global reach, it’s important for partner retreats to provide opportunities for partners across different offices to socialize. Even though partners may work in the same practice areas, the rise of megafirms and the continued expansion of other BigLaw firms can often mean teams are working in different offices across the globe and don’t get a chance to meet in person. “A partner retreat enables, as an example, a practice chair of a law firm’s labor and employment group to get together with key partners from Sydney and Paris and New York,” said Larry Watanabe of legal recruiter Watanabe Nason LLC. Partners often find themselves working extensively with each other through email and video chat, but these electronic means are no substitute for the connections made through actual face time. “It’s necessary to offer people the opportunity to get together, because if not for events like [retreats], it’s very hard to develop any connection with someone electronically,” Watanabe said. Offering partners the chance to bond over hors d’oeuvres and cocktails or during a laid-back activity like golfing allows them to loosen up and get to know their co-workers. Many firms also give their partners the chance to bring their families to the retreats as well, helping spouses and children forge bonds that can give the partners a sense of camaraderie in the office. “It’s no different than Microsoft or Google sending everybody to Maui for a week with their families to get face time together,” Watanabe said. “It’s about building camaraderie between the troops. If you start to create a nameless, faceless entity, it’s a lot easier for the lateral to disconnect and leave.”
Plan Strategic Meetings Since these retreats take partners away from their office and plow into potentially valuable billing hours, it’s important to pack the retreat calendar with important meetings so that any lost profits are worth it. “Retreats can be very, very expensive,” Bertolet said. “Make no mistake, this is absolutely a use of resources and time because, in addition to the fact that you are taking partners away from their available time, these retreats can be very elaborate.” One way to ensure that retreats are worth their generally massive price tag is to plan them around a firm’s annual meeting, according to Ed Wisneski, a director at legal recruiter Lateral Link LLC. “With a lot of firms, when they have their retreat, they coincide it with annual meetings, so a lot of discussions about the direction of the firm and strategic planning decisions go on at retreats,” Wisneski said. If a retreat doesn’t piggyback onto a firm’s annual meeting, however, these getaways can be the perfect opportunity for partners from different offices to get together to discuss important business decisions. “The executive committee of a firm isn’t going to make a different choice for the future of the firm because of what happens at a partner retreat, but I think that partners at the firm who are present at these management meetings feel they have more decision-making power at the firm than if they didn’t go to the retreat at all,” Bertolet said. Strategic planning meetings at retreats are less about choosing courses for the firm as much as they are about consensus building, according to Bertolet. Once partners across different practice areas and offices reach agreements about the trajectory of the firm, it paves the way for smoother working relationships between partners moving forward. Don’t Go All Out The price tag associated with partner retreats will vary from firm to firm and sometimes from year to year, depending on a firm’s financial performance. But even if a firm is doing well, it’s best not to go into the red to fund these getaways, experts say. “If a firm can do it without financial pain, retreats can be very worthwhile,” Bertolet said. “But for a lot of firms, that’s a decision they have to make on a year-by-year basis.” The length and location of the retreat, in addition to the quality of the food and drink, is often an indicator of how good of a year the firm is having. If the firm is in the midst of an off year, there may be a noticeable damper on the event, according to Bertolet. Instead of spending hefty amounts during good years, firms can have a more stable budget for their retreats that they’re able to maintain despite potential dips in their profits. The retreats can be closer to home or at a less elaborate venue, which would help firms save cash and host similar getaways during off years. Many firms have already cut back on the amount they were willing to spend on their retreats during the recession, and are hesitant to go back to the elaborate spending of previous years, Wisneski said. Some firms even opt to cancel their retreats all together to save funds. “Firms dial back on expenditures that are not necessary to the function of running a law firm, so while a retreat is a good thing to do, it is an expense, and it is an expense that does not need to be spent,” Wisneski said. “You can be a well-rounded firm that does everything without a retreat, but it is an added benefit.”