The culture at many law firms has been toxic for as long as I can remember. And the truth is it will not change until law firms tackle stultifying hierarchies, the habit of promoting senior lawyers to leadership roles as a reward for record billing, with no respect for the fact that people management skills might be required, and cultures entirely focused on billings and profits per equity partner.
At the root of the problem are the owners, who are invariably partners. It is who those people are as human beings, and hence how they run their businesses, that is the seed of the toxicity. Partners do not consider it their business beyond matters of legal liability and capital investment. That singular identity is writ