The key to successful attorney mentoring lies in establishing a framework of measurable outcomes before diving into subjective discussions. As the mathematician Richard Hamming observed, “You get what you measure.” By grounding mentoring conversations in firm metrics, mentors can provide clear, emotion-free guidance that helps attorneys understand their trajectory and make strategic improvements.
The Three Pillars of Attorney Performance Metrics
1. The Billable-to-Collected Journey
Most attorneys understand billable hours, but fewer grasp the complete revenue cycle. Effective mentoring involves explaining the relationship between billable hours, billed amounts and collected revenue. This progression tells a story about client value perception and attorney efficiency.
When attorneys examine their unbilled time entries, they gain valuable insight into work that clients don’t value enough to pay for. This analysis makes attorneys more efficient and strategic about their time allocation. The ultimate measure of attorney value isn’t hours worked — it’s revenue collected by clients who found the work worth paying for.
Mentors should regularly review these metrics with attorneys, helping them both identify patterns in write-offs and learn how to provide greater client value. This objective analysis removes emotion from performance discussions and provides concrete areas for improvement.
2. Balancing Personal Production and Business Development
As attorneys progress in their careers, firms expect them to balance personal production with business origination. Personal production — revenue generated through the attorney’s direct work — keeps the firm operational today. Origination — new business development — ensures the firm’s future growth.
The ratio between origination and personal production should evolve throughout an attorney’s career. Young associates typically focus entirely on personal production, while mid-career attorneys should achieve origination ratios of 20% to 50% of their personal production. Partners should ideally originate two to five times their personal production, creating work for other attorneys while maintaining their own billable contributions.
Mentoring conversations should address how attorneys can develop expertise, build reputations, expand professional networks and request additional work from existing clients. Linking these development activities to measurable outcomes allows attorneys to understand the business impact of their networking and marketing efforts.
