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Amid the very public allegations of sexual harassment and misogyny roiling within DLA Piper and Jones Day came the news that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will dock the pay of its misbehaving partners.

So just how effective is a financial penalty in deterring bad actors?

"Financial penalties didn't deter Bill O'Reilly or Harvey Weinstein," said Doug Wigdor, a partner for Wigdor LLP who is representing the woman at the center of the DLA Piper sexual harassment debacle.

In October, Law.com's London-based affiliate Legal Week reported that Freshfields plans to set up a conduct committee and introduce substantial, automatic financial penalties for misbehaving partners.

The policy would dock a partner who is subject to an internal investigation 20% of their profit share for a year after a warning. The report came out the same month that former Freshfields partner Ryan Beckwith was handed a £235,000 penalty for inappropriate behavior by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, although the firm maintains that the new policy is unrelated to Beckwith's ousting.

But there's little evidence that other law firms are adopting a similar system or even that financial penalties are an effective deterrent for rainmaking partners who often are allowed to act with impunity at their firms.

Both Bill O'Reilly and Harvey Weinstein, who were ousted from their respective companies by very serious allegations of sexual assault and harassment, had financial penalties included in their contracts, said Wigdor. And while he's never seen a penalty similar to Freshfields in a law firm, he noted that they are common throughout corporate America and the banking industry.

"I think that paying a fine or being docked some sort of compensation is sweeping it under the rug," he said.

If it has gotten to the point where a firm is using money to incentivize good behavior, then the firm has a culture problem, not a compensation one, said Jordan Furlong, a legal consultant and founder of Law21. And if the firm is using a financial mechanism to punish a partner, what would that do to stem harassment by rainmakers who often take home the lion's share of compensation?

"I'm not sure how effective it is to say 'we're going to dock your pay.' It's either acceptable or not. Does it mean that we're establishing a price for carrying out this behavior?" he asked. "The other lawyers, the other staff members—who often get it the worst—they don't care that the partner makes less money. They want to see different behavior."

Criticisms aside, there is some merit to "operationalizing" the values of the firm by aligning firm culture with compensation, said Corcoran Consulting Group principal Tim Corcoran, who advises large law firms on their compensation systems.

Compensation systems often fall into one of two camps, with some overlap: subjective models, where the compensation committee has a broad mandate to consider attorney performance, and objective models that lean heavily on set metrics in hours and revenue.

Increasingly, Corcoran has been asked by his clients to apply an objective approach to traditionally subjective measures—a common thread he sees within the Freshfields plan. These hybrid compensation systems look to apply dollar values to such things as how successfully a senior partner is transitioning clients or attendance at work events.

"It's about translating ideals and very specific behaviors into guidance to the compensation committee," Corcoran said.

Conversely, firms with objective models are looking to include more subjective measures. For example, a practice leader who is billing an incredible amount for the firm may get dinged if the practicewide metrics are sagging.

Freshfields has taken the same steps by assigning a monetary value—20% of a partner's profit share—to encourage good behavior or discourage bad behavior. The firm would not disclose what would violate their "conduct protocol."

Like Furlong, Corcoran has some reservations about what a specific financial penalty would signal to the rainmaking partners and their victims. But a mechanism similar to Freshfields' would work well for institutionalizing the often informal "no asshole" rule, he said. Enumerating very specific costs and penalties for bad actors emboldens management to take action and signal how seriously a firm takes its culture.

"Even if another firm looking at this doesn't take the same structure, they would be more forthcoming about the consequences," Corcoran said.

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Freshfields to Establish 'Conduct Committee', Partners Could Face 20% Pay Penalty for Bad Behaviour