Setting minimum experience requirements for associates working on matters

A press release about the 2005 ACC/Serengeti survey of law departments mentioned that one of retention terms it asked law departments about was “minimum experience requirements for associates working on matters.”

I respect the survey for asking about this, but such a requirement strikes me as a blunderbuss approach. Doesn’t it push law firms to have more costly associates do tasks that a first or second year associate should do? (See my post of Nov. 8, 2005 about law departments hiring only experienced lawyers.) Isn’t it the responsibility of the billing partner to write off hours wasted by a novice lawyer?