I recently submitted a partner candidate to a large law firm. He was in his 40’s, and had a book of business of around $500K - $600K. Everything during the interviews went great. But then late in the process (actually at the offer stage), we learned that the firm would not be hiring the partner as a “partner,” but rather as an “of counsel” with the expectation that after a certain number of months when the appropriate firm committee was scheduled to meet, he would be elevated to (income) partner. He was told that this was the result of a new “policy” in which every partner candidate came in as of counsel, regardless of how much business they had.
Although I had warned him that this sort of thing was becoming more common with the big firms, the candidate was not happy with this news. The candidate was an income partner in his present firm, and income partners in the prospective firm were normally required to show that they had at least $500K in business. So under the circumstances, the candidate had the reasonable expectation that he would join the firm as an income partner. There were three other good reasons for this expectation. First, the usual way lateral partners changed firms was that they were given the same title they had in their prior firm and/or at least the same title as an attorney inside the firm with an equivalent amount of business. Second, it is in everybody’s best interest to bring in a partner candidate as a “partner” in order to assist the candidate in further business development. Third, the law firm did not appear to have anything to gain with this “policy,” other than an increased risk of losing high quality partner candidates with business.
Although I had warned him that this sort of thing was becoming more common with the big firms, the candidate was not happy with this news. The candidate was an income partner in his present firm, and income partners in the prospective firm were normally required to show that they had at least $500K in business. So under the circumstances, the candidate had the reasonable expectation that he would join the firm as an income partner. There were three other good reasons for this expectation. First, the usual way lateral partners changed firms was that they were given the same title they had in their prior firm and/or at least the same title as an attorney inside the firm with an equivalent amount of business. Second, it is in everybody’s best interest to bring in a partner candidate as a “partner” in order to assist the candidate in further business development. Third, the law firm did not appear to have anything to gain with this “policy,” other than an increased risk of losing high quality partner candidates with business.
