If you have a law firm, the reality is you probably have a billable hour requirement of some kind or some metrics in which you require employees to meet.  This is true no matter the size of the law firm.  Otherwise, there is no way to budget the law firm.  There is no way to ensure there is enough money in the bank to pay employees or the firm’s bills.

Law firms can always receive the dreaded resignation from employees from time-to-time.  Some employees may be interested in getting into another line of work.  Some employees might think there are greener pastures out there where they can make more money and not have to work as hard (even if this is completely unrealistic).

Law firm employees leaving is generally not a big deal if you get used to spotting when it is about to happen, you are always recruiting and accumulating resumes and have people ready to step in when that employee decides to depart.

One of the easiest ways to forecast when somebody is about to leave is by following the hours and productivity.  In other words, if you’ve had an employee who has generally billed their hours and been productive, but those numbers start tailing off, that is generally a sign that the employee is either looking for another job or is about to depart.

Employees who are looking for a job or about to accept another one usually become ambivalent about billing their hours and being productive.  Why should they care at this point?  They have mentality checked out and are about to leave anyway.

So, when you have an employee who is slacking all of a sudden, when they were a productive employee, that’s the time to start accumulating resumes and looking for a replacement.  If you do this, employees leaving is something a law firm can easily recover from in short order.  But it’s all about anticipating the departure by following the hours and productivity of the law firm employees.

If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them below.