Law firm management is often compared with the experience of herding cats.

The trade-off for employing groups of intelligent, highly-trained and skilled professionals is that they tend to have their own views about operational matters and performance.

This dialectic has been highlighted by a recently conducted survey into law firm personnel and training issues at the larger end of the practice spectrum.

As is to be expected, the researchers found a mixed bag of results.

There was positive feedback, but the research also exposed problems - especially in the views of non-partners.

Assistants wanted more stretching objectives and challenging performance reviews.

Many said they were not given sufficient opportunity to work with partners and half the respondents said partners did not co-operate with each other.

It may be tempting for managing partners to be dismissive.

Young lawyers are fully aware of the type of environment they are walking into from the moment they sign their training contracts.

The profession at the top end of the company/commercial market is extremely successful, as evidenced by its fees and its continued growth.

It doesn't appear to be broke, so why try to fix it?

However, the professional services world is becoming increasingly competitive.

Staff and clients no longer show the loyalty they once did.

And what some managing partners might consider to be soft and cuddly issues - such as human resources - will play an increasing role in the stability and long-term success of law firms.