Zero Tolerance to the Rescue

"This is [the program] in its best light. But what lies beneath is
a pattern of behavior that places law firms at risk. Generally, the improper
activities take place out of the spotlight. … [Participants] expressed
a sense of feeling powerless about how to respond. Their anecdotes offer
a sobering look at a long-standing culture. …Often deeply in debt, it is
difficult for [people] to do anything but endure.  … The rules are
never explained, but known to all."

What sinister environment is being described here?  The accounting department at Enron?  A
major firm in the midst of a
humiliating e-discovery meltdown?  People at the heart of the UBS
tax fraud/evasion probe?

None of the above:  The answer is summer associate programs at AmLaw
firms.

We are graced with this
insight today courtesy of The National Law Journal. 

The bill of particulars?

• "Everything is free. The atmosphere is higher class than anything
  we are used to, and the pressure to attend every event, including the after-parties,
  is significant." 
  • This from an unnamed summer associate at an unnamed
    firm—suffering mightily from the expectation to attend high class
    events.
• "Summer associates report an atmosphere that seems to condone inappropriate
  comments and sexual overtures. Consider, for example, the married partner
  with children who was overheard at one event asking a young woman what her
  dating age range was." 
  • I would submit that whatever "her dating age range" is, the partner has
    demonstrated he’s far too juvenile to fall into it.
• "Law firms further contribute to the problem by sending inconsistent messages."
  • And this would be a first in the American workplace?

Altogether predictably, the advice for remedying this is the nanny state’s
first line of defense:  "Zero tolerance." 

"One suggestion is to develop clear rules for personal conduct and communicate
them not only to the summers but to associates and partners, making it clear
that everyone will be held accountable for a zero-tolerance policy. Zero tolerance
needs a safe haven for communicating concern and the assignment of more than
one person to whom a summer associate can confide."

Finally, we are advised that "Law firms could derive a significant competitive
advantage by transferring the enormous resources from late-night parties to
programs providing creative training and mentoring."

Where to begin?

Could we revisit the balance between investing in associate recruiting and
investing in associate mentoring?  I know firms are doing that constantly.  Frankly,
they’re complementary, not conflicting.  But that’s merely a numbers game,
and the tenor of the article has nothing to do with numbers.

Actually, this reminds me of nothing so much as the history of instituting
risk management and loss prevention programs at firms.  Back in the dark
days, when every partner was a cowboy, conflicts checks were cursory, work
went loosely supervised, "best practices" was a phrase the future would invent,
and, not surprisingly, claims against firms occurred with some predicctable
frequency.  Think
of it as the equivalent of the open bar summer associate parties, only grafted
into the mindset of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

In the next phase of loss prevention, firms embarked on serious-minded, admirable,
and largely effective efforts to institute policies and procedures.  Conflicts
checks were institutionalized, new matter opening procedures got teeth, work
was formally reviewed.  Now entrants to the bar are at least being carded
and reminded not to proposition anyone (be they opposite or same sex, and emotionally
older or younger).  But of course, human nature being what it is, not
all misbehavior disappears.  And firms still buy E&O insurance.

Which roughly takes us to today:  Policies and procedures are great,
and yes, I imagine most firms would say they enforce them with "zero tolerance"—certainly
for egregious, intentional, or repeated violations, if not for inadvertent,
trivial, and sincerely regretted infractions.

But one more ingredient is still missing, and it’s the ineffable one that
cannot be instilled no matter how many all-hands emails go out and no matter
how many trainers are brought in to conduct "risk management awareness" sessions.

The ingredient is a combination of emotional maturity and culture:  The
potent combination of knowing in your heart of hearts that "that’s not the
way things are done around here" and the wisdom and perspective to follow through
on those core values in moments of darkest and deepest temptation. 

So, no, it’s not about the "zero tolerance" police, whose guiding assumption
is that people are children whose knuckles need to be regularly rapped.  It’s
not about workshops and HR guidelines, and it’s not about "a safe haven for
communicating concern."  It’s about knowing you’re in an adult environment,
believing you have earned the right to be there and belong there, and living
up to the implicit promise you have made to your colleagues and to your firm
(and to yourself).

---

Update (24 July 2008).  A regular reader writes:

Hubba, hubba, Bruce! 

I won’t comment on the apparent horrors that young adults who graduated
from college a year or two ago are encountering when forced to participate
in many high-level social events in the presence of alcoholic beverages.  What
a shocker that must be. 

But I am clear about one thing:  Being asked your dating age range
is simply a question that may or may not deserve an answer. 

Fielding such a question may even feel awkward or difficult and could require
finesse.  But that’s life — sometimes awkward or difficult and sometimes
eased with a little charm. 

Speaking just for myself, I long for a sense of balance and a little grace
and humor, now gone, in these conversations and recall with nostalgia the
sign that once hung on the back of my office door in the early 1990s:  "Sexual
harassment will not be tolerated here.  But it will be graded." 

Ann Lee Gibson
www.annleegibson.com

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As facetious as the sign on the back of the door was meant to be, doesn’t
it express a core human truth?  There are pitches and there are come-on’s,
in life and in business, and then there are pitches and come-on’s.  Adults
can tell the difference, even if the nanny police cannot.