Mid-level talent management is difficult: Jyoti Sagar

J. Sagar Associates founding partner Jyoti Sagar said that the most difficult milestone for lawyers in a law firm would be at the stage where one has done 10-12 years and are going to get inducted as an equity partner.

"Thats the most difficult part I see even in my firm for example, because everybody doesnt make an equity partner. We as firms try to create an alternate structure for example for people who are not going to be an equity partner. Some firms have a policy of saying up or out, we dont have that policy."

Jyoti Sagar was part of a panel that discussed the implications of the judgment of the Bombay High Court at the 6th Annual Asian ITECHLAW Conference, held at Hotel Taj West End in Bangalore on the 4th and 5th of February, 2010. The discussion which was moderated by Nikhil Chandra from Rainmaker, also featured Lalit Bhasin from the Society of Indian Law Firms and Shweta Bharti from Hammurabi & Solomon.

Responding to a question from the audience regarding the challenges of retaining middle-level professionals in a law firm, Jyoti Sagar said that a lot of decisions are driven by people making personal choices. "Some of these are lifestyle choices, you want to be an individual lawyer practicing in the court system, you want to be an individual lawyer working somewhere on the transactional side, what is the type of client you want to serve, what is the kind of sophistication of transaction or the levels of transaction that you want to get engaged in, do you want to specialise or not, the kind of law you can practice, the kind of law you want to deal with."

Earlier, he had said that a subtle message to a client about certain HR processes and the way our practice is handled and the organisation is structured can actually assurance of a few things including the continuity of an institution.

"It is not a one, two or three-person organisation. There are several people who are collegial partners with various skill sets, practice areas, specialisations and industry focus which are all available together on one platform working together as very closely knit cohesive partnership."

"Whats happening is you see that the sophistication of transactions is such that clients today want expertise. If I say same lawyer and say this guy does telecom, he does electricity, he does ports, he is the master of all, no one is going to believe it because today the depth of specialisation is becoming so much."

Category:

Education

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• law firm
• India
• specialisation
• equity partner
• talent management
• interviews
• Jyoti Sagar
• Lalit Bhasin
• SILF
• Rainmaker