The Power of Peer Pressure

eer pressure is one of the less frequently discussed fuels propelling the Big Firm machine. Many Big Firms have figured out ways to harness the power of peer pressure so that they can inspire productivity and improve profits -- at least in the short term. What you, and your firm, should realize, however, is that as with any fuel source, peer pressure has its unintended consequences.

JUST SAY NO

Nancy Reagan first introduced me to the concept of peer pressure during her valiant -- if futile -- War on Drugs. As a pre-teen, I remember her warnings that one day those malfeasors sitting behind me in math class would try to pressure me to smoke some illegal substance, and I should, "Just say no."

Maybe because of Nancy, or maybe because of other similar messengers, when I hear the term peer pressure, I imagine herds of acne-ridden, angry, dope-smoking teens trying to coax other naïve teens into experimenting with drugs, playing hooky or worse.

But no, no and no. At least in the law firm context, it is all so much more subtle than that. While I must confess that peer pressure has contributed to some poor choices in my life (that mullet I sported through much of fifth grade; my memorization of Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice Baby"), let's just establish right now that not all peer pressure is considered bad. Experts agree that peer pressure also serves a function of teaching us what is socially acceptable and how to fit into our various roles.

Big Firms and their legions of psychoanalysts on retainer (OK, I'm kidding) understand the value of so-called "positive" peer pressure. You know, the kind of peer pressure that leads ambitious law students -- who had no problem saying no to the evil temptations of their teen years -- to forget who they are and what they want just so they can adhere to the social expectations for smart kids.

For example, prior to graduation, these lemmings will gladly subject themselves to the mind-numbing pain of membership on the Law Review, studying torts on a Friday night in the library and then applying to work for a Big Firm even though they went to law school to save the bald eagle. Why do they do it? Because that's what all the smart kids do.

LIGHTS OUT

Once they become part of the machine, successful Cogs continue to use their savvy sense of positive peer pressure to determine the proper ways to behave in order to succeed.

"All the partners seem to love Cog No. 297 -- she works every weekend and joins painful clubs like Networking Lawyers for Nader ... hmm ... I can handle that!"

The most common forms of Big Firm peer pressure relate to the billable hour. Because your success is largely determined by how many hours you bill, you will obsess about these statistics for your entire career at Big Law. "I can't leave early for that law school reunion happy hour -- I only billed 8.7 today, and if I don't get up to 54.6 billable hours this week, I will fall off my target."

This obsession leads you to compare yourself to your peers. If the Cog in the office next to you arrives before you and leaves after you, you will feel guilty and know you better step it up. And by all means, you must arrive before and leave after the partners on your floor -- if you want to avoid any misconception that you are not billing enough hours.

Cogs do this to themselves regardless of the Firm's "culture." It doesn't matter if your firm is not about "face time" -- you will be all about it because you are a "smart kid," and you want to do what smart kids do.

This sometimes leads to odd behaviors like leaving your lights on after you head home, arranging your office so that your chair is not easily visible to passers-by or coming in early and leaving late, but taking a two-hour lunch to see your kid.

NOTICE TO ALL: COG NO. 297 IS A SLACKER

Some Big Law Firms are reluctant to leave to chance the possibility that you'll cave in to "positive" peer pressure and become a billing fiend. These firms have little ways of harnessing the power of peer pressure. Like posting (or circulating) the billable hours of your fellow associates so you can see how you measure up.

There it is -- right there in black and white -- where you stack up compared to your peers on the most important gauge the Firm uses to determine your future. "Wow, even though I quit my recreational tennis league, worked an all-nighter last Thursday and started billing through lunch, I am still 5.6 hours below the average of my fellow Cogs. I'm dead weight. I better pick up the pace, or I will never make partner -- and my fellow Cog friends will stop speaking to me!"

This is ingenious. Even if all Cogs are meeting (or even exceeding) the "minimum" requirement for billing hours each month, there always will be a gunner and poor sad sack at the top and bottom of the list. As a "smart kid," you have always been in the top-tenth percentile of everything. Seeing yourself on the bottom of a list (even if you are billing plenty of hours) will cause your innate sense of success to kick in, and you'll claw your way to the top of the list. Crafty.

But Big Firms must be careful about using peer pressure to influence behavior. Statistically, if we followed the paths of the majority of our peers, we'd be likely to burn out and abandon billable hours for the greener pastures of government work, in-house gigs, rearing live young or herding goats.

So sometimes maybe you should "just say no" to positive peer pressure and take a long weekend trip to the mountains. "Will it ever stop?" you ask yourself. "Yo / I don't know / turn off the lights / and I'll glow!" I'm sure Vanilla Ice was sending some wisdom to us all when he wrote that line.

taken from http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1208256429729