Credit: 1STunningART/Adobe Stock Are Single-Tier Partnership Law Firms Fighting the Wind?
Recruiting and retaining senior associates—that gold mine of Big Law leverage—may now be more challenging to single-tier firms.
October 14, 2024 at 05:00 AM
6 minute read
What You Need to Know
- Single-tier firms are becoming fewer and fewer, and the cultural arguments against it may not hold.
- Several industry observers point to competitive advantages for two-tier firms.
- Still, several firms in the single-tier crowd appear to be using the structure to enhance their reputation and culture.
With Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton moving to a two-tier partnership structure this month, the latest in a line of recent converts, the question becomes what comes next for the dwindling number of major firms that don't have a nonequity tier. At what point do tradition and culture yield to change and progression?
Single-tier partnership firms may now be at a competitive disadvantage with peers because they don't have the same flexibility in hiring talent and lateral groups and in the promotion of senior associates, industry observers say.
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