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Mismeasuring the Profitability of Associates and Practice Groups
[Editor's Note: Last month A&FP examined the dangers of considering profitability metrics in isolation ("Matter Profitability: When Metrics Mislead" by Steve Campbell). Board member Ed Wesemann now provides a similarly fresh look at the pitfalls of using "business-like" industrial cost accounting to make managerial judgments in a law firm. Ed's most recent book ' Creating Dominance: Strategies for Law Firms ' was featured in our June 2005 edition.]
In an effort to be more “business like” we find ourselves making decisions that are supported by the numbers but intuitively seem wrong. I sense that is the case in some firms as they develop sophisticated data warehouses and cost accounting systems, and I've seen those systems drive some pretty strange conclusions.
I had occasion to be on a panel with several other consultants and some managing partners recently. One of the consultants said, “As you all know, every law firm loses money on associates during their first 3 years of practice.” The panel (me included) smiled and nodded acknowledgment of this commonly accepted belief: all young associates cost more than they produce in revenue.
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