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American Bar Association
Law Practice Management Section
Competency-based Performance Improvement Model
Executive Summary
December, 2003
The Practice Management Advisors Committee of the ABA Law Practice
Management Section is developing a plan for creating a competency-based
performance improvement program to help lawyers incorporate management into
their daily work. The competency model[1] supports a
learning continuum and will serve as a framework for sound management
practice.
Phase I of the plan is to identify those competencies that are required for
satisfactory or exemplary job performance within the context of a lawyer's
duties and responsibilities.
The practice of law has changed dramatically in recent years, and it seems
certain that these changes will continue for the foreseeable future. The
Practice Management Advisors Committee believe, the American Bar Association
needs to assume a leadership role in identifying the new skills and
competencies needed for managing today’s law practice. The bar association's
role will help lawyers answer two critical questions:
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What new types of client services should lawyers seek to provide in five,
ten, or fifteen years?
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What new skills and competencies will lawyers need to provide these new
services to clients?
Many visionaries believe that continued profitability will require partners
to confine themselves to the top level of work for their firm and to spend
more time supervising the efforts of more staff. Where historically, lawyers
have viewed management as a necessary but unwelcome intrusion, management is
becoming a primary level of productivity.
Phase II of the plan will be the development of a competency-based
self-assessment tool that will serve as a career and succession-planning
instrument for individuals, law firms and corporate/government legal
departments. (Certification scheme?)
Background
In 1974, the American Bar Association adopted an official set of “Standards
for Judicial Administration". By 1987, the ABA Task Force on Law Schools and
the Profession: Narrowing the Gap (The MacCrate Task Force) conducted an
in-depth study of the range of skills and values necessary for a lawyer to
assume professional responsibility for handling a legal matter. When the
task force began to consider how the preparation of lawyers for practice
could be improved, it decided to focus on the development of a compendium of
the skills and values that are desirable for practitioners to have. For the
first time, the task force identified Organization and Management of Legal
Work (Skill §9) as one of the fundamental areas for skills and competencies
needed by all lawyers.
The Practice Management Advisors Committee believe the ABA Law Practice
Management Section should assume the lead in building systems and controls
-- the methodology for teaching basic practice management skills. In the
past, individuals have been left to themselves in learning management
skills, but it is believed that with the bar association's involvement in
developing and implementing a competency-based performance model, the bar
associations can begin to help lawyers better serve the public.
Developing a Competency-based Performance Model for Lawyers
A lawyer, as a manager, is someone who “gets things done through other
people.” In contributing to the integrated performance of the lawyers’ job
within a law firm, a lawyer’s work can be classified as either managing the
work of others, or as an individual contributor on the basis of the
functions and outputs demanded of their job. The proposed competency-based
performance improvement model focuses on the competencies needed by lawyers
in their role as managers of their own work product, as well as the work
product of others.
The Practice Management Advisors planning group has started with The Law
Society of England and Wales’s Practice Management Standards[2]as
a starting point in identifying a range of competencies. These standards do
not prescribe procedures and systems in detail, but rather identify the key
disciplines in which procedures and systems are needed that will suit the
needs of both the practice and their clients.
In April 1998 the Law Society of England and Wales launched its Lexcel
Certification Scheme, which is a voluntary competency model allowing law
practices and corporate legal departments to be independently assessed as
having achieved the core requirements of the Practice Management Standards.
The Lexcel scheme awards a "quality mark" to practices and legal departments
that are independently assessed as having achieved the Law Society's
Practice Management Standards.
Major Categories[3]
Management Structure
Services and Forward Planning
Financial Management
Managing People
Office Administration
Case Management
For purposes of our discussions the following definitions can prove to be
helpful:
Competency model is a set of desired skills, values, or behaviors the
organization feels its leaders need in order to successfully meet current
and future business challenges. (See Rich Hughes, Robert Ginnett, and
Gordy Curphy, 1999, p.108)
Core competence is a bundle of skills and technologies that enables a
company to provide a particular benefit to customers. A core competence must
also make a disproportionate contribution to customer-perceived value, and
finally, to qualify as a core competence, a capability must also be
competitively unique and the competence must be able to be applied in new
product areas. (See Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad. 1994)
Curriculum. A curriculum consists of a system of performance
improvement opportunities (such as courses, programs, learning
intervention, or other forms of performance improvement opportunities), the
content specifications for them, and a conceptual framework for
linking the opportunities in a sequential manner which will provide
efficient and effective learning opportunities for employees.
Competency-based curriculum. A competency-based curriculum is one
whose content specifications are defined in competence terms,
consistent with the definitions above (Dubois, 1993, p. 9).
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References
Appley, L. A., A Management Concept. New York: American Management
Association, 1969.
Argyris, C., Interpersonal competence and organizational effectiveness.
Homewood, IL: Irwin-Dorsey, 1962.
Bass, B. M., Burger, P. C., Duktor, R., & Barrett, G. V. Assessment on
managers: An international comparison, New York: The Free Press, 1979.
Blake, W. F. Handbook for developing competency-based training programs.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982.
Blake R. R. & Mouton, J. A. The Managerial Grid. Houston: Gulf Publishing,
1994.
Bray, D. W., Campbell, R. J., & Grant, D. L. Formative years in business: A
long term A T & T study of managerial lives. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1974.
Boyatzis, R. E., The competent manager: A model for effective performance.
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1982.
Campbell, J. P., Dunnette, M. D., Lawler, E. E., III, & Weick, K. E., Jr.
Managerial behavior, performance, and effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1970.
Dubois, David D. Competency-based performance improvement: a strategy for
organizational change. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1993.
Hamel, Gary and Prahalad, C. K. Competing for the Future, Boston, Mass.:
Harvard Business School Press, 1994.
Klemp, G. O., Jr. (1978). Job Competence Assessment. Boston, MA: McBed and
Co., Inc.
Kotter, J. P. The General Manager. New York: The Free Press, 1982.
McClelland, D. C. (1973). Testing for Competence Rather Than for
"Intelligence." American Psychologist, 28 (1), pp. 1-14.
McLagan, P. A. Flexible job models: A productivity strategy for the
Information Age. In J. P. Campbell and R. J. Campbell & Associates,
Productivity in organizations. San Francisco, CA.: Jossey-Bass, 1990.
Stogdill, R. M. Handbook of Leadership, New York: The Free Press, 1974.
White, Robert (1959) Motivation Reconsidered: The Concept of Competence.
Psychological Review, 66, pp. 279-333.
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[1] A competency model is a set of desired skills, values,
or behaviors the organization feels its leaders need in order to
successfully meet current and future business challenges. See Rich Hughes,
Robert Gannett, and Gordy Curphy. “Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of
Experience,” Third Edition Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 1999, p.108
[2] One of the primary objectives for the Practice
Management Advisors is to determine if The Law Society’s (generic) model
includes at least the full range of competencies required for fully
successful job performance.
[3] Adapted from the Law Society of England and Wales’s
Practice Management Standards.
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