For any who might be swayed by the argument that companies are forced into heavyweight performance review processes in order to protect themselves from the threat of litigation, I'll just add this countervailing consideration: there are a subset of developers (myself included) who consider such performance review systems to be a skunk tied around the neck of the company. I will not go near such companies with a ten-foot pole. I've just seen too many weird outcomes that go back to such processes, and they give off a bit of "big bureaucracy" smell.
