The legal drama television series Suits depicts life at a fictional New York City corporate law firm, the prestigious Pearson Hardman. The show ran for nine seasons and had many elements which made it appealing to a wide swath of audiences, not the least of which were the ceaseless power struggles among the firm’s partners and associates. As fans, we loved watching neurotic Louis Litt plotting the ruination of Harvey Specter, the charming and supremely self-assured partner and his associate, the impossibly clever Mike Ross, and we enjoyed the ease with which the firm’s managing partner, Jessica Pearson, dismissed (maybe encouraged?) their chicanery. It wouldn’t be controversial to say that collaboration among Pearson Hardman’s lawyers was nowhere in sight.
As is often the case with legal dramas, many scenes in Suits are totally ridiculous and over the top. Still, when it comes to power dynamics at certain law firms and the resulting culture — combative, cut-throat and aggressive — some scenes are not that far flung from reality. At these firms, too, collaboration is elusive, and often yields to egocentric and resistive behavior within lawyer teams. A quick Google search reveals article upon article which more or less says the same thing: People hate the law firms they work for because of how they are treated. One article posits that the reason many attorneys are miserable is that “being an attorney does not align with your skills and strengths” and elaborates: “When you admit that, you can begin to create and collaborate, and not take down or destroy.”
Why do such cultures persist in law? According to a Forbes article published in 2019, law has been “slow out of the collaboration gate. This is hardly surprising, because the legal industry—though enamored of innovation—has done little of it compared to other professional services providers and business.” Moreover, law’s “hesitant embrace of collaboration is deeply rooted and part of a career-long indoctrination process” beginning in law school which teaches law students “to avoid mistakes rather than to search for creative solutions; to avoid risk rather than to gauge the client’s risk/reward calculus; to adhere to precedent instead of experimentation; to develop a zero-sum mentality instead of a collaborative one; to create the best possible legal work, not the solution to the client’s challenge; and to acquire a legal vocabulary designed to separate lawyers from the rest of society—including clients—instead of to promote a meaningful exchange.” From there, lawyers in private practice learn to measure success in terms of hours billed and revenue origination, not in terms of achieving efficient, creative solutions for clients. In sum, lawyers are trained to be “insular and inward-facing, not multidisciplinary and collaborative,” according to the author.
It’s not hard to reach the conclusion that collaboration feels better, but is it any better for the bottom line? Despite what many lawyers believe, there is evidence in an article by Heidi Gardner, PhD at the Harvard Business School, about a collaborative culture’s positive impact on client revenue in the legal practice. Gardner’s research concluded that collaboration provides significant benefits, both for law firms and their individual lawyers, and also found that collaboration led to increased revenue through higher-value work and increased retention of clients and professionals.
Gardner’s findings are affirmed by a growing trend in Silicon Valley among successful leaders who are turning to ‘conscious leadership’ which results in both satisfaction across the organization and increased revenue. “Conscious leadership helps build a culture of thoughtfulness and focuses on eliminating drama and gossip,” says Jim Barnett, cofounder and CEO of Wisq in a 2023 article published in FastCompany. It’s about “guiding people and teams with awareness, presence, and authenticity”; “coming from a place of curiosity and ease”; and “asking, listening, and being thoughtful in your interactions.” Conscious leadership emphasizes authenticity, inclusion, and trust which “becomes infectious and helps build a happy work culture.” According to Barnett, decades of research shows that happier employees are more productive, which can, in turn, “lead to 23% higher profits, according to Gallup.”
Some newer law firms like Scale LLP are heeding these lessons and approaching the practice of law differently. Scale uses technology and a distributed platform to bring Silicon Valley ingenuity to the practice of law. One of Scale’s core values is collaboration. “We are built around teams, deeply committed to serving our clients, each other, and our entire community,” says Scale’s Founding Partner, Adam Forest. “We are not a ‘dog eat dog’ culture.” David Reidy, Scale’s Managing Partner, agrees. “In everything we do, we prioritize our work to serve the best interests of the collective community. That means always being responsive and collaborative in service of the bigger picture and the greater good. This approach has resulted in record-breaking total production numbers over time.”
Human beings generally prefer to watch dysfunction rather than personally endure it. For that reason, collaborative Suits lawyers might not have made the show’s network and producers as much revenue, but when it comes to real workplaces, collaborative cultures get the highest of both ratings and revenue.
