The Problem With Surveys
So I am flying to Houston, quietly reading the April/May issue of Law Practice magazine (see my next post). I stop at 'FrontLines" to examine their survey. The question--How do law firms arrive at their partner compensation decisions?--is pulled from an Altman Weil survey. I just started laughing. On a 4 point scale, with 1 being no importance and 4 being very important, personal fees collected and business origination (new clients) get the top marks of 2.5 each, with business origination (increase in volume) and business origination (new business/existing clients) arriving just behind at 2.25 (2 is of little importance and 3 is somewhat important). Years in practice is ranked less than 1. Hours recorded (apparently distinguished from hours actually worked) receives a rank of less than 2--less than "little importance." Yeah, right.
Judging from the survey, there are no factors that are very important or even somewhat important. Strikes me that the survey respondents were delusional.