Law Firm Retreats: Do They Suck?

I'm been thinking of a few stories from law firm retreats I used to go when we were all swimmin' in dough and life was good good good.

Upon reflection, nearly all of those stories involved copious amounts of liquor, sexual relations, and some form of inappropriate, embarrassing, odd, or downright sybaritic behavior on the part of a summer associate, junior partner or, ideally, some really old senior partner no one really liked anyway.

So, in these lean times, I see that Virginia Grant of Altman Weil thinks it's a really good idea to have a law firm retreat. Here's why:

Why Do We Need An All-Inclusive Retreat?

Have you noticed a lack of discipline in your
firm? Is the enthusiasm level low? Are employees
not working together? Is there a lack of
teamwork and collaboration? Is there a lack of
organization in the firm? Is there confusion
about job responsibilities? Are clients receiving
less than excellent service? Are there turnover
issues? Is the firm struggling to integrate new
hires?

These are issues that firms deal with at one
time or another. An all-inclusive retreat can be
used to develop consensus around standards of
behavior or accountability within the firm. It
could be used to discuss ways to improve
workflow, systems and processes that will
make the firm more efficient. All firms could
benefit from spending valuable time together
and making the firm a better place to work.

Let me try to understand -- a dysfunctional, dispirited group of lawyers and staff, unable to work together, should all gather at some resort in Mexico to establish "standards of behavior or accountability within the firm"? Sounds like an episode of The Office to me.

Feel free to share your law firm retreat memories/horror stories after the jump.