Thelma and Louise, risk management and 9 reasons you should put the 'super' into supervision

Matthew Thomson and Anna Forsyth from Lockton discuss supervision from a risk management perspective.

Case study

Consider the story of Thelma and Louise (no, not that one!):

Thelma

Thelma thought she had a good rapport with her staff and always tried to adopt a friendly approach. She didn’t want to appear to be micro-managing her team and gave them plenty of space and autonomy. She worked on the basis that they would come and ask her if they didn’t know what to do.

Thelma embraced the shift to home working during the pandemic and continued to work from home afterwards, going into the office only when necessary. As an employment lawyer, there wasn’t much she couldn’t do from home anyway and, although her mobile phone was turned off when she was in meetings or at tribunals, everyone had access to her online calendar. She made a point of telling her staff: “My e-calendar is always available – you can arrange to see me any time.” She prided herself on running a friendly, informal practice.

Louise

Thelma’s assistant solicitor, Louise, told a very different story. She was often the only fee-earner in the office and found that she was fielding all the queries from support staff. Sometimes she felt she was taking on too much responsibility. At other times, Louise felt Thelma was not delegating work to her because she didn’t know what she was capable of doing.

Thelma rarely had any time to read Louise’s emails or review her files. When Thelma wasn’t at tribunals, she was usually seeing clients or taking calls, so it was often difficult to reach her. To make matters worse, Thelma’s calendar days were often blocked out as ‘busy’. Even when Louise did manage to find a space, Thelma would often agree to the meeting but then push it back to a later date because of “more pressing matters”.

Louise knew how busy Thelma was and, although it was meant as a joke, the subject of the latest calendar appointment – ‘Another fine mess to get Lou out of!’ – made Louise feel like she was being a nuisance.

The outcome

The outcome was almost inevitable – a problem arose and Louise felt she had to cope on her own. By the time she had raised the issue with Thelma, the problem was no longer capable of being resolved, and the firm had to notify the matter as a circumstance to the Master Policy brokers.

Thelma felt that her low-key approach to supervision had failed and concluded that, in future, she would adopt a much stricter approach with all her staff.

Louise felt let down and unsupported. She lost confidence in her own judgement and began to refer every query to Thelma. Eventually, Louise left the firm.

Supervision

In general terms, supervision is a process that involves a manager meeting regularly and interacting with their staff to review their work. It might also involve setting expected standards, monitoring and reviewing performance and identifying learning and development opportunities.

The Law Society of Scotland’s guidance states that: "Where a solicitor delegates work, whether to another solicitor (or solicitors) or to paralegals or other members of staff, it is essential that such staff are properly trained and that there are systems in place to ensure that the delegated work is adequately supervised." (Section E, Division A, Standards of Service)

The Society’s website has a huge amount of useful information on supervision, including comprehensive guidance for training managers.

Risk management

In terms of risk management, the partners of a firm have overall responsibility for matters done in the name of the firm. It is therefore critical that partners ensure there are effective levels of supervision in place, so that mistakes are avoided and the standard of work delivered to clients is that which is expected of a qualified solicitor. Where a partner is responsible for a specific department or team, they should ensure all their staff have adequate training in any relevant rules and guidance, and that there are appropriate mechanisms for the supervision of staff.

The amount of supervision necessary in a particular case or transaction will be a matter for the professional judgement of those involved, taking into account the importance and complexity of the work and the reliability and experience of both the supervisor and the supervisee.

It’s worth considering that supervisory duties should really mean a reduction in the fee target assigned to the supervisor (rather than sitting on top of a full quota of client-facing responsibilities). Otherwise, supervisors may not have enough time to monitor and measure the progress of their department or the team for whom they are responsible.

Workplace culture

Supervision offers a vital channel of communication between senior and junior colleagues. It gives staff the opportunity to talk about issues or problems and identify ways to resolve them. This is critical. A practice culture where individuals feel they can speak about the difficulties in their work is essential for good risk management. A practice should make every effort to build a relationship where individuals can bring issues to the attention of their supervisor, including mistakes they have made.

Mistakes or ‘near misses’ should always be treated as learning opportunities. It’s important to communicate how the issue has arisen and what the appropriate fix is. Supervisors should then ensure through feedback that the individual has learned how to avoid that error in future (and has the tools to apply that learning to other similar practice issues).

Where a positive ‘no-blame’ culture is developed, flagging errors and near misses provides a valuable opportunity to the firm to check whether the error is a result of a systemic failure within the practice – for example, a poorly drafted or outdated precedent, a lack of a process or a lack of training.

Where colleagues are working remotely, with less in-person contact, there is always the obvious risk of communication errors. It is critical that remote working does not mean less direct supervision for junior colleagues. Where there is a significant level of remote working, frequent and regular ‘virtual’ check-ins and meetings with colleagues are crucial.

Training

Who’s training the trainers? It is vitally important that individuals with supervisory duties have adequate training and experience. In some cases, an individual becomes a supervisor because they performed well in their own field and produced a high-quality technical output, not because they showed strong skills in supervising people. These are different skills, so don’t underestimate the importance of leadership, management or supervision training.

On this subject, the Society is running a fantastic free training series focusing on the holistic side of supervision and how line managers can look after the wellbeing of their team. Find more information on the Lawscot Wellbeing series, including sign-up details, on the website.

Final tips for supervisors

• Make sure staff know what is expected of them; have clearly defined roles and regularly updated objectives for each member of staff.
• Make sure you are available for at least a part of every day, or that someone else is available to supervise in your absence.
• Try to be approachable – give positive feedback and encourage discussion.
• If criticism is necessary, always be constructive.
• Beware of ‘jokes’ that are actually subtle put-downs.
• If you are too busy, say so – but give a time when you can deal with the matter.
• It is unfair to agree to see a junior colleague but then cut them short, make them rush or rearrange at short notice – try to avoid this at all costs.
• Supervise proactively – don’t wait for problems to come to you, but review staff progress regularly.
• If appropriate for the size of your firm, consider establishing a mentoring scheme. This allows staff access to someone more experienced who they can have open discussions with, but who is not responsible for their performance review.