Case 1: Johnson, Cohen, and Graydon LLP

Your first stop is to Johnson, Cohen, and Graydon (JCG) LLP, a leading Canadian law firm at their head office in Toronto, Ontario. You meet with Lukas Johnson, the managing partner at JCG. He is concerned about the power dynamics at play in the law firm.

Q2. [4 points total] Lukas also wants to bring to your attention an issue that he has noticed with respect to power differences at work. In particular, he has noticed a situation between the associates and the legal secretaries. The associates, who have recently finished law school and have passed their bar exams,

act as though they are superior to the legal secretaries given their higher salaries and their higher level positions in the organization where they have some degree of authority over the paralegals, legal secretaries, and records clerks. However, the legal secretaries who receive lower pay and have less formal education, have specialized knowledge in terms of knowing how to work closely with the managing partner and senior partners. In addition, the legal secretaries have been working at JCG for a long time, and they tend to be well respected by others in the firm. As such, the legal secretaries believe that they are superior to the associates. The associates and legal secretaries have to work together frequently, as the associates need the legal secretaries to arrange meetings with the senior partners for them, and the legal secretaries need the associates to provide them with the correct information for briefings. Lukas is worried that these power dynamics will cause problems.

You believe that Lukas is unaware that people can possess different types of power. As such, you:

a) Using examples from the case, explain to Lukas the type of power that the associates and legal secretaries each possess [2 points].

b) Give at least one suggested guideline to the associates and one suggested guideline to the legal secretaries as to how they can exercise their power effectively [2 points].