The highest-paid equity partners in a law firm receive on average between three and five times as much as the worst paid—a widening pay gap that threatens law firm cohesion, a recent survey has found.

The 2020 Equity Partner Contribution & Compensation by MHPR Advisors and Performance Leader also revealed that the vast majority of measures used to determine a partner's compensation are production-related.

In 2020 the most common top-to-bottom compensation spread for equity partners was between 3:1 and 5:1, but only three years earlier the most common spread was between 3:1 and 2:1. The findings are based on a survey given to 162 partners in Australia, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, most of whom are managing partners.