Big Law's Partner Problem
Law firm partnerships are on a proverbial hamster wheel as equity partners leave and firms scramble to elevate new lawyers into the partner ranks.
April 21, 2022 at 06:32 PM
6 minute read
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|The Disruption: Big Law's Partner Problem
While large law firms learned their lesson from the Great Recession when it came to the perils of laying off too many associates—only to be left with no one to do the work when demand returned—they are potentially facing a related problem post-pandemic when it comes to partner promotions.
In just the last few weeks, we have reported on instances of partners retiring early, on the one hand, and firms scrambling to hire more partners, on the other. This phenomenon, which started in 2021, is further highlighted by some interesting data set to be released next week as part of the Am Law 100 report, and has even deeper implications when separating out the equity and nonequity tiers.
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