Career Clinic: How do firms get away with 'up or out' policies?

It's not legal, it's highly questionable, at least in the way some firms execute it. It's based on the assumption, which has until now proved largely accurate, that no-one will want to commit career suicide by challenging it. What may change that dynamic now is that record numbers of women are entering the profession, many of whom reach 30 and decide that law is not for them. This means that there is soon going to be a very large crowd of workers who will have a big incentive to pursue these cases and nothing to fear because they want out of the legal profession anyway. There'll be a few firms who richly deserve what's probably coming.

Anonymous -03 Apr 2007 | 18:12

As long as the firms can play 'divide and conquer' they will continue to do it. Lawyers don't typically join unions and the fear of getting the stigma of 'troublemaker' for those moving on means that they meekly move elsewhere.

Anonymous -11 Apr 2007 | 13:32

The main question in my mind is why not retain your senior associates, make it clear to them that they have gone as far as they will but are doing a great job day in, day out. Constantly losing talented associates and the huge training cost/time spent bringing new graduates up to speed seems a total waste. The accountancy firms conquered this issue long ago

Carl Pressley, Principal Consultant -11 Apr 2007 | 17:42