Are Short Term Goals, ‘Eat What You Kill’ Compensation, Dragging Lawyers Down?

A number of developments in recent decades, ranging from globalization to basic changes in compensation structures and more reporting on law firm economics, have led to the growth of the “free agent” mentality and a preoccupation with short-term goals, according to some scholars and professionals at a conference staged by Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession. “Can the next generation have a capacious vision of what it means to have the fullest life in law?” asked Benjamin W. Heineman, Jr., former general counsel of the General Electric Corporation.: “If you compensate your partners in an ‘eat what you kill’ manner,” said Brad Karp, chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind & Garrison, “you’re going to create a very different firm than if you compensate in a lockstep manner, where everyone has a culture of collaboration, working together.”