Transcript
"Is an of counsel attorney considered an employee."
The answer to that is yes. Most of the times they are. All of council means is that the person is not a partner, but they're also not an associate. It's a role beyond an associate, meaning that they have the experience and so forth but they're just not typically not accountable for bringing in a lot of business. They may have reduced hour requirements as well.
To stay a partner at a big law firm is very difficult. An equity partner, you can only keep that role if you have a lot of business, contribute a lot of revenue and work very hard, and not everybody wants to do that. So what they do is they make a lot of people of counsel.
In some firms, the role of counsel is a very significant role. To make of counsel at a firm like Skadden Arps is exceptionally difficult. It's no different than making partner in the majority of firms.
But in most firms, of counsel basically means either you don't have to be accountable for business, you don't want to have the requirement for the hours or in some cases, it's just that you're just older and no longer want to be partner with all the demands, but you still want to work.
