{"id":1673,"date":"2019-09-01T19:37:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T18:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theofficialboard.com\/best-articles\/?p=1673"},"modified":"2019-11-01T13:49:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T12:49:09","slug":"being-a-law-firm-partner-was-once-a-job-for-life-that-culture-is-all-but-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theofficialboard.com\/best-articles\/2019\/2019-08\/being-a-law-firm-partner-was-once-a-job-for-life-that-culture-is-all-but-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a law firm partner was once a job for life. That culture is all but dead."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Viewed in The Wall Street Journal.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Careers in large law firms aren\u2019t what they once were, even if you are a partner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, becoming a law firm partner was a ticket both to long-term employment affiliation and wealth<\/strong>. \u201cBeing named a partner once meant joining a band of lawyers who jointly tended to longtime clients and took home comfortable, and roughly equal, paychecks. Job security was virtually guaranteed and partners rarely jumped ship,\u201d Wall Street Journal<\/em> reporter Sara Randazzo reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changed? Simply put, the paradigm of large law firms has changed nearly completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasingly, firms are run by non-attorney CEOs. Large firms have become even larger, and attorneys have become expendable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, even partners, who sometimes no longer enjoy equity stakes in their firms, jump ship for other law firms and career opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randazzo points to Kirkland, founded in Chicago in 1969, as Exhibit A in this shift. \u201cOver the past decade, Kirkland has become known for making high-price offers to rising stars at competitors, for $10 million a year or more in some cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has embraced the two-tiered partner system, made up of a junior class paid a set salary and an inner circle of equity partners, who split the firm\u2019s profits,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been generally positive new for young attorney associates, whose hourly rate has increased to as much as $1,000 an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the real winners in the new paradigm are the few remaining senior partners who, with equity stakes, share in the firm\u2019s profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Kirkland, that firm-wide revenue last year was $3.76 billion, meaning the firm\u2019s few partners stood to earn anywhere from $1.75 million to $15 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other attorneys of these firms, including non-equity partners, still do well, earning as much as $700,000 annually but no longer recipients of the seven-figure compensation and lifetime career affiliation partners have earned historically.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viewed in The Wall Street Journal. Careers in large law firms aren\u2019t what they once were, even if you are a partner. Historically, becoming a law firm partner was a ticket both to long-term employment affiliation and wealth. \u201cBeing named a partner once meant joining a band of lawyers who jointly tended to longtime clients… More<\/a><\/p>\nRead more...<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[183,184,170],"class_list":["post-1673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-08","tag-lawyer","tag-partner","tag-wsj"],"yoast_head":"\nBeing a law firm partner was once a job for life. 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