Legal

Molding minds

By Matt McClellan

Print This Page

Send this page to a friend

Dan Rabbitt,
founding principal, Rabbitt, Pitzer & Snodgrass PC

---

Dan Rabbitt wants data — as much of it as he can get.

Rabbitt, a founding principal of law firm Rabbitt, Pitzer & Snodgrass PC, likes to keep an eye on what his employees are doing, and weekly work summaries, monthly evaluations and mentoring programs all help him monitor the development of his younger employees.

“Most of us have been blessed with a good memory,” he says.

But there are times when memory isn’t enough at the 42-lawyer, 100-employee firm, and that’s when the data comes in handy.

Smart Business spoke with Rabbitt about how to make sure your employees are doing things your way.

Q. How do you attract quality employees?

We attract lawyers because they get into court sooner than they do at most other firms. It’s nothing for our new lawyers to be arguing a motion the first or second day they’re here as a licensed lawyer.

We have a deposition checklist. When they first start taking depositions, we go over how they should be done, what should be covered, and we ask them periodically to give us the best deposition they’ve taken and have the other associates critique it.

It’s amazing how they can come up with things their cohorts missed. It’s a constant learning process. It’s not just because you’ve got your shingle up on the wall that means you can do everything you want to do — we want to know what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and we want to be sure that it’s done the best way and our way.

Q. How do you let employees know what’s expected of them?

It starts at the top and goes all the way down. The first orientation meeting with new lawyers, we say, ‘Here’s what we expect of you.’

When they’re new, we have more regular meetings. Generally, we have quarterly meetings with the whole staff. We have continuing legal education programs, including an in-house program that’s approved by the Missouri Supreme Court.

So we all take turns in presenting different programs, and part of that is we talk about the clients, as well.

For example, next Monday night I’m scheduled to lecture to all the lawyers on ethics, the profession, the do’s and don’ts, and the code of professional responsibility, and make sure they understand all facets of it and adhere to it.