Anna knew this wasn’t a normal meeting the moment she walked in.
The room was smaller than any conference room MSL usually used for “important” conversations. Six chairs and six notebooks. Water was already poured. No screen and no agenda posted on the wall.
Anna quickly recognized nearly everyone.
Carlos – a sixth-year litigator; always staffed and rarely questioned.\
Mei – a fifth-year corporate associate; sharp, quiet, and trusted.\
Rachel – a sixth-year trusts and estates associate; client-facing and meticulous. Omar – a fifth-year real estate associate; the one the partners relied on when deals got complicated.\
Ben – a sixth-year employment associate; thoughtful, cautious, and never loud.
These are mid-level associates no one worries about, and no one needs to explain much to them anymore.
Margaret, head of HR, and then a woman Anna didn’t recognize.
Margaret opened the meeting. “Thank you all for attending. You’ve all received an invitation to participate in a pilot program we’re running at MSL with Susan Silverman, who designed it.”
“This group is intentional,” Margaret said. “You weren’t selected for this pilot because you’re unhappy or underperforming. You were chosen because you’re trusted and because the firm wants to understand what trusted mid-level associates are experiencing.”
Margaret introduced Susan Silverman, and then Susan took her turn to speak.
“I want to be very clear about what this is,” Susan said. “This is not a performance review, a retention initiative, or a promise about what comes next.”
All the mid-level associates in the room felt a wave of relief wash over them.
“This is a pilot program,” Susan continued. “That means it is limited, structured, and designed to help the firm learn before deciding whether to implement MLARD™ firm-wide.”
She said, “MLARD stands for Mid-Level Associate Retention and Development,” Susan explained. “It’s a system designed to bridge the gap between what firms expect from mid-level associates and what they actually teach them.”
“This is diagnostic,” she said. “The firm is testing whether the mid-level years serve as an intentional filter or an accidental exit ramp. After six months, the partnership will decide what, if anything, to do with what we learn. There are no guarantees.”
“Let me start with something foundational,” Susan said.
She wrote on the whiteboard:
85% = Billable Work\
15% = Strategic Investment Time (“SIT Time””)
Most firms operate under the assumption that more than 100% of your time should go to billable client work,” Susan explained.
Most law firms overlook the fact that it isn’t feasible. I believe that you can dedicate 85% of your time to billable client work, with the remaining 15% allocated to SIT Time. SIT Time isn’t time off; it’s time invested in business and leadership development, as well as in building the skills that shift you from just executing work to generating work.
“The problem is that most firms expect this 15% to happen seamlessly, on your own time, not the firm’s. They want you to develop these skills, but they don’t tell you how, don’t give you permission to spend the time, and don’t track if it’s happening,” Susan said.
Ben leaned forward. “So we’re supposed to just… figure it out?”
Exactly,” Susan said. “And that’s what this pilot reveals.”
Susan wrote three words on the whiteboard:
Business Development\
Leadership\
Fulfillment
“These are the three areas where firms assume development will happen on its own,” Susan said. “This pilot makes them explicit,” She explained.
Business Development. “How to actually build a practice here, not slogans or rainmaking stories. What you’ve been told explicitly, what you’ve inferred by watching, and what you’re guessing in silence.”
Leadership. “How leadership is interpreted here. What partners notice, what they interpret as leadership, and what is quietly evaluated without being named.”
Fulfillment. “The one firms almost never name. What kind of practice you believe you’re building and whether you can see what the work adds up to.”
“Over the next six months,” Susan said, “you’ll participate in structured components designed to address each of these areas.”
She paused, looked around the room, and said, “Before I explain the structure, I want you to understand why this matters. The firm has always expected you to develop in these three areas. The difference is that until now, it expected you to figure it out on your own.”
“This pilot,” Susan said, “is about replacing silence with structure.”
Anna wrote in her notebook:
Silence → Structure
She didn’t know what the next six months would require from her. But for the first time, she had a clear direction.
The MSL Saga™, MLARD™, and the 85/15 Model™ are trademarks of Susan B. Silverman Consulting. The MSL Saga and all episodes © 2026 Susan B. Silverman Consulting. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.
