Retaining Top Legal Talent in 2026: The Playbook by Karen Mesmer

Quotes:

1. “Manners is another good one. You know, I think please and thank you go a long way. I sometimes have to, you know, do backspace, backspace and put in the word please because I'm shooting something off really fast. But I think those are important. I do think someone who cares about the firm and cares about the people that are on their team is really important.”
2. “The customer is always right, which means our clients, even if they're not right, they're right. You've got to know that because that's the way you need to treat them.”
3. “And when COVID happened, that took a nice chunk of business, you know, stopped it. And I can't remember if it was six months before we ever went back into the courtroom or maybe even longer, maybe it was a year, but no one got laid off. They made it work. I swear it's just a kindness that I see. And another thing is you'll see people who, you know, all of a sudden someone's got an emergency and so we'll send out some emails for help. Tons of people say, "I'll help.”
4. “You have to like change. I mean, there are some people that have probably never moved the furniture around in their house. And if they haven't, and they're not going to necessarily change in this environment, and this especially since COVID, this environment has really changed a bunch. And I've liked everything that has changed.”