MSI's Vietnam law member Apolat Legal introduces Human Resource Management into their extremely progressive law firm.
Human is the crucial and decisive factor behind the existence and development of all organizations. The importance of the human element is well reflected even more in the law industry in general and law firms in particular. This industry requires individuals to not only have in-depth legal knowledge but also know how to combine knowledge with soft skills, such as negotiation skills, mediation skills, legal writing skills, etc. The more qualification and reputation of the lawyer's team in the industry, the more it promotes the overall development of the law firm and vice versa.
Apolat Legal is not an exception. As a progressive law firm providing legal services in a wide range of legal areas and with a lifelong dream of being a leading firm, we always strive to employ and train many talented lawyers who share the same goals and are dedicated to the overall development of Apolat Legal. For sustainability and consistency in our HR strategy, we formulate basic principles and strictly comply with those for ensuring “talent-flow” in the right direction.
Recruiting the fit personnel
At Apolat Legal, we are constantly looking for talented candidates with a burning desire to attain many achievements in their own legal career path, to work together for the goal of developing a reputable and sustainable law firm.
We also set standards for each specialist position based on the vision and mission of Apolat Legal, and maintain these standards during our journey because we understand that the higher the responsibilities and requirements a position requires, the greater compensations and awards it obtains. Some criteria can be easily measured, such as degrees, grades in university or postgraduate program, language skills or soft skills, etc. However, as the “social” element is one of the peculiar elements of the environment of the law industry, there are tons of criteria that cannot be quantified clearly, such as career passion, creative spirit, ability to work under pressure, etc., These kinds of unmeasurable standards can only be perceived and evaluated subjectively through the process of interviewing and challenging.
The recruitment is not easy as we set high standards for candidates who are expected to be the outstanding personnel and be willing to dedicate themselves to the overall development of Apolat Legal. In general, this puts high pressure on candidates, which not all of them can withstand. Notwithstanding the above, when finding the fit personnel, we will, by all means, strive to convince and prove to such qualified candidates that Apolat Legal is a worthy working place to dedicate, where they can develop their talents and be rewarded for every effort. We are always ready for recruiting the fit one at any time instead of waiting until the lack of personnel. This also creates the unique recruitment policy of Apolat Legal.
Personnel Development
Training is a must in every company. However, the purposes of training are varied and purely based on the points of view of the company owner, whether they want their employees to improve their working ability and personal development in the future, or they just want to train their employees to get used to the workflow.
At Apolat Legal, we consider training as a “lever” for the development of both employees and the company. The periodical training is a must, where employees can share their knowledge, experience as well as difficulties with each other. We also facilitate and encourage the spirit of sharing and supporting each other of employees, regardless of their titles. A paralegal, which is the lowest position, still has an opportunity to train others and through this chance, such paralegal can build their confidence and learn for themselves other necessary abilities and skills, such as representation skills. Moreover, we encourage personnel to participate in external lessons/courses to learn from other experts and lawyers, and the fee for those lessons/courses will be paid by our budget training. The higher of the position you are, the more support you will receive.
We always create an “open-minded working environment” for our employees to perform well their responsibility, boost personal creativity and contribute to the overall development. Apparently, the completion requirements of legal cases are the crucial factors that must be followed by all lawyers, however, at Apolat Legal all employees reserve the freedom to raise their concerns or any opinions/comments on the company or on any upline personnel at any time and by any means without hesitation. Each person at Apolat Legal can freely set out new tasks or create a new impressive role and attract other employees to join in the game thereby contributing to the overall development of Apolat Legal. If you have a burning dream with a clear and specific career purpose, Apolat Legal will always create conditions and accompany you during your career path as we understand that the great combination and cooperation among talented lawyers will be the decisive factor for building the most outstanding law firm.
As human beings, we, even the talented ones, will make mistakes during working. Therefore, Apolat Legal deeply understands and is willing to bear all the arising costs, provided that the defaulting employees have tried their best when facing new problems/challenges and learned from that failure.
Retaining the talented ones
As a matter of fact, there are tons of leading firms with famous brand and firm finance, these big ones can attract the talents to their workplace, our staff is not an exception. So how do we retain our talents?
Apolat Legal is confident to combat this battle as we have unique features that create our own charm. When working for leading firms, you are just a small part of the operating machine having fixed rules and your responsibility is to comply with such rules. Apolat Legal, having a burning desire to be successful, is willing to make any changes or apply any new rules or processes which may be created by you. We appreciate and recognize every single effort in favor of the general benefits. We are also willing to share any information with you to help you know your contribution to Apolat Legal increased over time. We believe that there is a considerable difference between eating apples from someone’s apple trees and from the trees you take care of every single day.
Substituting the slow ones
We are building a culture of solidarity, love and helping each other. At Apolat Legal, we are a real family where you can freely talk, make jokes, share stories of life with each other. This culture has helped us overcome many difficulties in the early days of establishment and now, it is also our competitive advantage. On the contrary, this culture is not an exception as it is a barrier for us when substituting those who are behind and cannot keep up with the development of Apolat Legal.
Notwithstanding the above barrier, we must make a decision eventually. We cannot create unfairness for talents who constantly strive to build and dedicate themselves to Apolat Legal but are held down by the slow ones, creating an undue burden. Therefore, we cannot take the risk of retaining the slow ones. Those will be substituted with other talented employees who can speed up the development of Apolat Legal.
However, we always appreciate the contribution of the former employees and sincerely express our contributing comments to help the employees realize their disadvantages to overcome and be better in the future.
The above principles are only the basic elements of the human resource management strategy and will be updated to be tailored to each stage of Apolat Legal’s development.
