Washington Lawyer - July/August 2024 - 25

FEATURE
INVESTING IN HUMAN CAPITAL
Wilkins's course offers senior partners a valuable opportunity to reflect
on the legal marketplace. Leadership, caught up in the day-to-day operation
of a firm, rarely has the luxury of time to contemplate the widespread
changes in the industry. Wilkins says the course provides a framework
to approach emerging issues and make connections within an
international peer group facing the same challenges.
" We're living in a time of unprecedented change, " Wilkins says. " Digital
transformation, globalization of economic activity, proliferation of law,
the regulation of risk . . . How do we take all that's new, which will challenge
almost every part of the traditional law firm business model, but
preserve the fact that these are already incredibly successful businesses? "
The answers involve the development of core proficiencies that are increasingly
important in the legal profession. " You have to have technical
expertise, but you also have to have a range of skills, which are not about
just being a lawyer; they're about how you conduct yourself as a professional.
How do you build a team? How do you manage relationships? "
Wilkins says.
Despite the rapid expansion experienced by law firms, Wilkins says that
the challenges frequently involve interpersonal dynamics. " Law is a human
capital business, which means that you have to find lawyers, you
have to train them, you have to develop them, and, the most difficult
thing, you have to retain them, " he says.
" The law firm business model for many, many years was, roughly speaking,
19th-century sweatshop capitalism. They're trying to move away
from that, but the fundamental pyramid shape of law firms has remained
the same, and the time that partners have for training and development
of associates has decreased exponentially because partners are busier
and there are more associates at the bottom. The structure of law firms
has made the development of human capital both more difficult and
more important, " Wilkins adds.
Wilkins views partner training as a balancing act between innovation
and retention of assets that have helped fuel law firm growth. " It's not
disruptive innovation, " Wilkins says. " These aren't businesses created out
of nothing. These are already very successful multibillion-dollar businesses,
but they have to learn to be much more agile and adaptive, while still
preserving the core values of the legal profession that attract people
into law and provide the fundamental public and private goods that
their clients and society demand. "
" If that sounds complicated, it is, " Wilkins says.
Reach D.C. Bar staff writer Jeremy Conrad at jconrad@dcbar.org.
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JULY/AUGUST 2024 * WASHINGTON LAWYER 25
Washington Lawyer - July/August 2024

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