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.