Government Lawyers Likely to Become Even More Overworked

With large numbers of Baby Boomer government attorneys expected to retire
in the near future, their remaining colleagues are likely to face increasing
workload pressure. Photo: Shutterstock

Just in case government attorneys don’t experience enough pressure with their increasing workload, the impending retirements of many of their Baby Boomer colleagues is likely to make it even worse.

A Thomson Reuters survey of 238 government attorneys across the state, federal, and city/county levels indicate that 79 percent of the respondents expect their workload to increase in the next few years. Not only that, but 67 percent say that tight budgets and scarce resources add pressure to their workload.

Government attorneys face a lot of challenge that their private-practice colleagues don’t face. For example, government attorneys work on an average of 32 matters per week across a range of disciplines, while private practice attorneys tend to be more specialized.

“It’s soup to nuts,” said one respondent, a former county attorney from Florida. “I might be in county court one morning arguing a zoning code enforcement, and a couple of hours later be working on a federal housing grant or drafting a contract to purchase a sheriff’s helicopter.”

Media scrutiny also adds to government attorneys’ stress; everything they do is in the public eye. And increasingly, they must deal with emerging issues such as data privacy, cybersecurity, driverless cars, and more.

Because of the pressure to stay current in so many different areas, new government attorneys often find themselves in “sink-or-swim scenarios” with limited experience, just because nobody else is available to do the work.

One of the main ways new government attorneys learn about different areas of the law is to turn to their more senior colleagues. But with so many Baby Boomer attorneys on the verge of retirement—recent market briefings have reported more than 50 percent of the state and local government workforce will be eligible for retirement by 2019—junior attorneys are more likely to lack these resources.

“It’s a huge problem,” said one former county litigator. “When one of these attorneys retires, it can throw a major wrench into things…When they leave, it’s not just the legal expertise that goes, it’s everything: file management, statutes involved, negotiating parameters, affected parties, knowledge of regulations—everything.”

How to address the problem? Thomson Reuters says that there are some ways attorneys can help to manage their time.

First, they recommend automating some of the routine, day-to-day tasks that make up about 60 percent of a government attorney’s daily workload. Drafting software that automates redundant parts of the document management process can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to finish those routine tasks.

More efficient research methods and processes for retaining institutional knowledge can help, too. Knowledge management and legal knowhow software packages can help attorneys by giving them a head start when they’re researching legal issues beyond their areas of expertise.

Are you a government attorney? Do you think these solutions are valid? How do you feel about your department’s knowledge management and succession planning? Please share your thoughts in the comments.