Hiring Percentage: What is the Law Firm Hit Rate for Bringing on Staff?

Some lawyers get burned hiring staff–whether it’s legal assistants, paralegals or other attorneys.  But just because you miss out once in trying to hire somebody, that doesn’t mean you should give up forever.  There are distinct advantages to bringing on employees, including increased control over work product + improved revenue generation models.

In my experience, I’ve found that law firms connect on a successful hire (across all employee categories) about 40% of the time.  That may seem like a low number, but it represents about a 50% hit rate–meaning that every other hire should yield a viable staff person who will stay on between 3-5 years – which is not too bad in the modern economy.

Putting that into baseball terms, which folks often do when trying to rationalize failure: your hiring batting average as a law firm is about equivalent to Ted Williams’ 1941 season when he was the last baseball player to hit .400 over a full seasons . . . over 80 years ago.

That ain’t bad.

. . .

If your hiring has not been up to snuff, there is a way to raise your average.  Just talk with us.

The Wyoming State Bar offers free law practice management consulting services through Red Cave Law Firm Consulting.

To request a consult, visit the Wyoming State Bar’s law practice management page, and start running your law firm like a business.

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