War of the words

JACKY LEWIS risks A TONGUE-LASHING AS SHE ASKS law FIRMS AND TRAINEES ABOUT APPRAISALS.

ARE THEY a positive experience, or A FORUM FOR NEGATIVE FEEDBACK...Jacky Lewis risks a tongue-lashing as she asks law firms and trainees about appraisals.

Are they a positive experience, or a forum for negative feedback where praise is in short supply?Appraisal has become an established part of the legal year - from trainee to senior partner, no one is exempt.

While for many solicitors appraisal is a positive experience, and one that builds on strengths, lawyers may feel they are under the microscope.For other solicitors, it has become the workplace meeting from hell, as it focuses on lists of weaknesses, underperformance, areas for retraining, and under-billing.

For appraisal to deliver anything useful to lawyers, it must strive to overcome negative spin.

First, there is skill in the delivery, as a clumsy appraisal will close the ears of the appraisee.

Second, a lack of proper preparation really shows.

So, what about appraisal practices in the US? This is worth discussing as the profession here often takes its lead from the US.

With transatlantic merger speculation running rife, the profession is espousing US legal concepts - from high-pressure billing hours to dress-down Friday.

US firm LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae has radically altered the manner of its appraisals.

It now uses a totally oral method with a dedicated partner and a junior psychologist, meeting all its lawyers face to face.

Some suggest that this breaks the mould of professional appraisals in the City, although others wonder whether it is significant that the process is not deemed worthy of the attentions of a senior psychologist.

Anita Tovell, director of personnel at City firm Simmons & Simmons, says that everybody in the firm is appraised and this is primarily for the development of its lawyers.

'We look at personal qualities and commitment', she says.

Simmons' system covers a wide range of topics from legal and communication skills to problem analysis, teamwork, and personal organisation.

The firm has 110 trainees in London, who are all formally appraised at the end of each seat and informally appraised by their seat supervisors mid-seat.

She says: 'We want to have the best lawyers in the City, and helping them to develop their skills is a way of achieving this...we believe that our system of appraisal has contributed towards us becoming one of the top 25 best firms to work for.'Simmons & Simmons is constantly reviewing its appraisal methods and aims to have a continuously evolving system.

Ms Tovell says: 'We try to keep it in line with the needs of the firm'.

The firm has streamlined its system, using one form for all trainees and one for all its qualified solicitors.

This is consistent across all 12 of its international offices from Hong Kong to London.

Ms Tovell adds: 'We have a common base and a common shared understanding of what skills are needed for the job'.

However, there are many stumbling blocks on the path to a successful appraisal.

Henry, a senior partner in a City firm, has just been appraised for the first time and was initially confused by the process.

'It was my first ever appraisal and I didn't really understand what was being asked of me...

the HR person produced a form which was much too detailed - it wasn't made at all clear to me that this was just a guideline.' Henry took advice from a colleague and learned the ropes.

'Someone said to me: "What you have to do is not to seem apologetic or defensive - if you produce some reasonable figures everything will be OK".' In retrospect, he says, the appraisal proved valuable.

'I looked at my practice as I hadn't before - it showed me areas for development.

I have been qualified for 30 years and this is the first time I have had to sit down and look at myself.

It was useful just to chat with somebody...

in retrospect it was quite a valuable experience.' Even so, Henry acknowledges that people were anxious that the appraisal might be used against them.

He says: 'I did feel deeply insecure about the whole thing.

I had sleepless nights beforehand because I was asked to produce a personal business plan, and I had never done anything like it before.

In the end, I got a friend to help me and I looked at other people's'.

There are no Law Society protocols in place for appraising post-qualified staff.

A spokesman explained that such appraisal, at present, is 'up to the individual HR managers'.

The Law Society merely supplies law firms with regulations to be used for trainees during their training contract.

This is the Law Society Guide to Authorisation, which deals with, among other things, the trainee appraisal procedures to be carried out by firms.This suggests that there should be three 'compulsory appraisals' throughout the two-year training contract, although it goes on to suggest that trainees should ideally be appraised every six months.

Appraisal protocols are supposed to be in place for trainees in all firms, but it seems that many smaller firms get away with living by different rules.

David, a Liverpool solicitor who is two years post-qualified, says: 'I had my training contract with a small northern firm.

I have never been appraised...not once throughout my training or in the two years since.' He does not consider that his situation is unusual and maintains that many small firms do not manage to stick to their side of the training contract.

He thinks it is not difficult for smaller firms to avoid going by the book.

While appraisal should be 'compulsory' for trainees, many fear that a negative appraisal will follow them around, and will affect their chances of securing future employment with their firm.

How fair is the process?One trainee in a large firm in the south-east says he was anxious because his mid-seat appraisal had been overlooked.

He wondered what he should be reading into this omission.

He went to his subsequent end-of-seat appraisal with trepidation, only to find that the appraising partner spent most of the session criticising other trainees in the firm until he reminded her why he was sitting there.He says: 'I think she just wanted some space to shoot off her mouth about trainees - it was indiscreet and made me feel very uncomfortable...

after all, the other trainees are my friends...

we don't have much power and it's an uncomfortable position to find yourself in.

The whole process of appraisal is bad enough without it being done badly to boot.' A senior HR manager in a large London firm, who declined to be named, says that appraisals in his firm are still 'very much a focus on fees billed rather than on the behavioural aspect'.

He has been trying to change this ethos, and explains: 'It seems that you can charge as much as you like and if you're horrible to everyone that's OK.'But Brenda Pugh, senior HR manager at City firm Withers, says the firm takes the process 'very seriously'.

She considers that many paper-based appraisals can still be rather mechanistic and she would like to see that changed.

'I'd like to take the focus from the paperwork to the level and content of a discussion in itself...

I'm not convinced that appraisals yet get to the bottom of people's career development needs'.

Maybe LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae are on to something.At best, appraisal can provide a useful space for solicitors to identify strengths, weaknesses, set objectives, and explore their future training needs; but at worst they can become a dreaded and critical experience.

Maybe it's all in the feedback; after all the British are not traditionally over-strong on praise.

Appraisers can sometimes lack the appropriate training in feedback skills.If positive feedback is not offered first, the negative side may only serve to make the recipient defensive.

It would seem important that appraisals are delivered in such a way that they empower rather than dishearten the recipient.

Jacky Lewis is a freelance journalist