Bloomberg recently did an article on a report entitled, Assessing Lawyer Traits & Finding a Fit for Success,  which detailed the results from an online test taken by more than 1,400 people in the legal profession, the majority of whom were practicing attorneys, to assess why attorneys stay at their firms.

The report was co-authored by Right Profile, a Chicago talent selection and data analytics firm, and JD Match, an online legal recruiting website.  They estimate that when an attorney leaves a firm, he or she takes anywhere from $400,000 to $800,000 worth of business with them.  Hence, the desire on the part of firm management to keep the workhorses in the corral.

The test found that the attorneys who are most likely to leave their law firms have “higher levels of resilience, empathy, initiative and sociability.”  This makes sense to me.  It does take resilience and initiative to leave a firm, either for a better opportunity or to go out on your own.  These are also traits that law firms should treasure, so why aren’t they doing more to develop their people?

Far too many firms fail to hire the right people because they only look at skills, not personalities.  As the report notes, how law firms recruit, develop and retain attorneys has not changed much in the last 40 years — and the lack of focus on the human side results in almost a mass exodus of associates after three years (46%!).

Law firms need to give serious consideration to changing their work environment and culture so it rewards those personality traits you do want — and I would say that resilience, empathy, initiative and sociability would be on that list —  instead of reinforcing all the negative ones you don’t want.

You can get the complete report here.