Law firm managing partners consider partner appraisals

Last night I joined one of my long standing accountancy clients – haysmacintyre – when they hosted an informal dinner at the Institute of Directors for managing partners of small and medium sized law firms with speaker Phil Gott (www.philgott.com) talking on the subject of partner appraisals.

It was a fascinating discussion and I regret that for confidentiality reasons I cannot disclose either the attendees nor the specific topics discussed but one of the interesting points I noticed was how many relatively small firms, over such a short period of time, have embraced the concept of hiring professional managers to assist with practice management, marketing and human resources.

I was also tremendously encouraged to learn that most firms do appraise the performance of their partners – and some even see it as a really valuable development tool. Mind you, exactly how you assess the effectiveness of a partner in the areas of marketing, selling and client relationship management remains a bit of a black art!