Servant to master: The changing role of PSLs at Osborne Clarke

In an uncertain economic climate, many law firms are looking at ways to streamline activities and ensure every employee adds value. As a result, it seems that the role of the PSL – a non-fee earning, but fairly expensive member of staff – has come under scrutiny. Rachael Wright, a PSL at Osborne Clarke, looks at how the firm is re-engineering the role of its PSLs to ensure this resource is used effectively and that legal know-how and training is cutting edge.

The role of the PSL may vary from firm to firm, but, generally, the remit is the same:

Organising the various know-how, precedents and training systems;
Dealing with those areas of law that are not covered by any specific team;
Alerting the relevant teams to new developments in their area;
Producing client newsletters and online information;
Overseeing and co-ordinating activities to ensure that there is no duplication and that every team is working as it should be.

At Osborne Clarke, while all agree that these activities are vital to the firm’s future, it was decided that using PSLs to perform these tasks was not necessarily the best way to capitalise on PSL skills. The reasons are:

PSLs have insufficient time and resources to do everything that is expected of them to the highest level;
They do not always have the recent fee-earning experience to identify the commercial as well as the legal issues;
PSLs, in all firms, are often wrongly perceived to be second-rate lawyers, giving the impression that know-how and training is not as important as fee-earning.

As a result, the firm has looked at ways to transform the role of the PSL into a more managerial role. The idea behind this is to empower the PSL to:

Delegate jobs to particular teams;
Monitor and encourage progress in the firm;
Ensure a quality product is produced;
Eradicate duplication of efforts;

Essentially, the aim is to make the PSL a senior team player that manages a substantial chunk of the fee earner’s non-chargeable time.

A new system

For this to happen, Osborne Clarke knew that it would have to restructure the know-how and training process. As a result, a new system was designed to shift responsibilities from PSLs to fee earners and their team. The “guru system” was born.

The guru system involves groups of fee-earners, associates and assistants, pulling together under a team leader to take responsibility for all know-how, precedent, training and business-development issues that relate to a specific subject.

The employment team, which consists of about 40 lawyers, was selected to pilot the programme. The team was split into ten guru teams of four, each with a leader called a chief guru, according to the different areas of employment law (for example, redundancy, corporate deals, or family-friendly issues).

These guru teams were now expected to be experts in their guru field and manage the traditional role of the PSL within that specified area. So, for example, when a new adoption-leave policy was required in order to comply with new rights, the family-friendly guru team was expected to draft it.

Or, when the firm was asked to write an article on the impact of the Information Commissioner’s Employment Practices Data Protection Code, the data- protection guru team took responsibility. And so on.

Challenges

Of course, with changes come challenges, which had to be carefully thought through:

Would fee earners study their guru subject at the expense of other areas that they also need to know about in order to provide a high-quality all-round service to clients? To prevent this, know-how sharing sessions, at which fee earners discussed recent developments in all areas of employment law, were structured to ensure experts imparted their superior knowledge to their colleagues. When a difficult point was discussed, a guru team member was on hand to deal with it;
Was the scheme asking too much of the fee earners? Not only did they have their fee-earning role, but they now also had to take on a quasi-PSL role. This was addressed by making it clear that the guru system was based on refocusing non-chargeable time and, as a result, fee earners would not end up doing extra hours;
Would those who wanted to join a particular guru group be unable to and feel left out and bitter (some guru groups being more popular than others)? Opening guru meetings to anyone who wished to attend eliminated this concern. Thus those who wanted to maintain their close interest in an area were not prevented from this and could do so as and when they chose to.

Benefits

As the system was rolled-out, the benefits became clear:

The overall quality of the know-how, precedents and training within the firm improved. More got done because the team involved was focusing entirely on this area, whereas the traditional PSL had to spread his or her time over a number of areas;
The PSL was able to stop “fire fighting” and could work proactively, providing better know-how and training services to clients and working on online services. In addition, the PSL had time to consider long-term know-how and training strategy – something that was always seen as vital, but an area that was neglected due to time constraints;
Those lawyers that were not engaged in the process of sharing knowledge were now forced to get involved. They had to understand how a precedent was put together (the importance of drafting notes, etc) and how and why a document was placed in the know-how bank. This provided them with an understanding of the value of these activities and encouraged better use of the rest of the know-how, precedent and training facilities;
By making the PSL a master rather than a servant, the importance of training and know-how was emphasised. Before, many believed this role did not carry weight, no matter how much lip service was paid to the importance of this role. Now, fee earners are seeing the benefit of these activities and the results are a change in mindset.

It is the last two points that were, and will continue to be, the most challenging issues coming out of the new PSL role. The guru scheme can only be successful with fee-earner buy-in and an understanding of the value this system brings, and this meant a major change in behaviour and attitudes.

Managing the change

Research proves that the key to successful knowledge management is changing peoples’ behaviour. Technology can take you so far but unless the culture of the workplace is addressed, little will change.

To stimulate Osborne Clarke’s fresh approach to managing know-how and training, various “trailers” preceded the launch of the guru scheme. In addition, when the project started, it was treated as an “event” to ensure the firm saw the scheme as an important milestone. The aim was to arouse curiosity and create momentum.

Fee earners were encouraged to get heavily involved in the scheme, and refer to it at every opportunity.

For example, when someone came to them with a difficult question, they were encouraged to suggest that the guru was consulted. The idea was to keep plugging the guru scheme so that eventually it embedded itself into the identity of the department. Team newsletters always referred to the progress of guru teams and chief gurus were regularly asked to give training sessions or write articles on their guru subject to ensure their name was associated with that subject. Peer pressure was also a useful tool. The PSL attended all guru team meetings and knew the most about the progress of all guru teams. As a result, he or she could play a useful role encouraging each team to do better. Lawyers are nothing if not competitive.

Most lawyers want to do a good job, like to be seen as experts, and consulted by their peers. As a result, the firm places great importance on publicising people’s efforts. Senior partners are made aware of achievements and assistance from those within the team. A good piece of guru work is held out as an example to others and, of course, is noted and valued at appraisal time. It is formally recognised at appraisal time and in due course, will be tied in to the annual bonus.

For Osborne Clarke, the guru scheme pilot has proved successful within the employment team and the next challenge is to launch it to the rest of the firm. We believe that it is the way forward for training and know-how management, and the role of the PSL in managing this scheme is seen as critical. Without someone to co-ordinate and oversee it and the systems within which it operates, it will fail. However, with the new PSL in place, know-how and training can reach even higher standards.

Rachael Wright is a professional service lawyer at Osborne Clarke. She can be contacted at: rachael.wright@osborneclarke.com.