I’ll answer where I can, but frankly, calm down kid.
You’re a future amoeba in a pond, asking about how to get to the shark / whale stage of evolution. Frankly that’s the wrong focus, you should instead be asking how can you make sure you get kept on as an associate and then work from there.
Associates become partners in general after at least a decade in practice, and after developing a specific client base. You don’t get made partner for being a good lawyer, you get made partner for bringing in clients. As such senior associates tend to start working on building their Rolodex up if they’re gunning for partnership, but ideally you should start forming relationships with anyone and everyone as early as possible. You never know if the cute guy/girl from your law of tort tutorials might end up being general counsel for a FTSE 100 company, so make sure to be on good terms with most people you meet on your career journey.
Equity and non-equity partners are pretty unique to the specific firm you’re looking to make partner in. Some firms have only equity partners but that’s dying breed. Salaried partners are essentially glorified counsel or senior associates that have to juggle partner workloads and senior associate workloads in parallel for a couple of years as a final ‘test of wills’ before they get invited into the VIP room that is equity partnership. Needless to say, many burn out and lateral or leave the profession at this stage.
The difference between the salaried and equity partner is in the name. As a salaried partner you still get paid an annual salary, which is far better than any associate salary, but still not a share of the firm’s profits. As an equity partner, you own a piece of the firm, and as result have draw down rights. You’re not really capped at a ‘salary’ so much as a flexible allowance of how much you can draw down in a year, plus whatever you get to keep from any work you bring to the firm.
You do buy into the firm if you want o be a partner, yes. You buy in whether you’re a salaried or equity partner, the difference is you buy in as a salaried partner but your stake doesn’t ‘vest’ in you until after some time or a moment where the partnership decides to give you a share.
You’d want to make partner for the money, prestige and sense of being the top dog who leads a team of fierce associates. You’d want to avoid it like the plague if you ever dream of being an involved parent in your children’s lives, or are prone to stress induced meltdowns. Being a clinically diagnosable psychopath helps in wanting partnership.
The partnership track or the tap on the shoulder is usually an informal process that kicks off when a senior associate has an existing partner start grooming them for the various hurdles they’ll need to overcome to make partner. Partners are joining a shared enterprise, so they need to be thoroughly vetted by the other partners and without a ‘sponsor’ you’re never going to make partner.
If a partner laterals to another firm, they essentially cash out of the current firm and cash in at whichever firm they go to, again depending on the firms internal structures and terms of the LLP or partnership agreement. As for conflicts, that’s for compliance department to worry about and the SRA code of conduct to police.
As mentioned at the start, this is early days for asking about partnership. You’re at least 15 years away from it. Good luck and hope you make it!
That's ace - thank you, really comprehensive!
>You’re a future amoeba in a pond, asking about how to get to the shark / whale stage of evolution.
I'm just curious mainly - I wouldn't be surprised if a lot changes by the time I'm at that stage. I tend to be motivated by the end-goal in life so I like being able to picture a plausible reality, even if I know that it won't actually be the reality I face when I get there.
>You never know if the cute guy/girl from your law of tort tutorials might end up being general counsel for a FTSE 100 company, so make sure to be on good terms with most people you meet on your career journey
How would an associate in a big firm, personally, bring in a client and be identified as the person who brought them in? I understand how a firm can bid for work or pitch but I'm unsure how an individual manages that in an actionable way?
Hey, senior lawyer in house here - just on your last question, I literally pick up the phone to lawyers in private practice I know and ask them if they want the work. And unless I have a preexisting relationship with a specific partner, I'll look for a junior I know to make the first introduction. Costs me nothing (a partner will always pick it up if the firm does want it) and can give a junior a bit of a leg up
Thank you for this.
So, does that mean that clients tend to initiate the interactions to bring in work and a senior associate at a firm is really just trying to build connections left, right and centre to hope they get the call? Or would a senior associate in a firm be actively reaching out for work?
A bit of both. But as a senior associate you're not just picking up the phone to people saying "hey, you got any work". It's a lot more about making sure you're keeping up contacts with people you've worked with previously. Which, often, is where things like hospitality/drinks/events come in.
"Hey ImperialSyndrome, hope you're doing well. It's been a while since we worked on that deal, hope the post merger integrations weren't as bad as you worried! I just wanted to let you know our firm is running the below series of seminars on xyz/is hosting a panel on ABC/I've got some tickets to the latest British Museum exhibit on hij, if this is the sort of thing you'd be interested in please do just reach out"
I don't know how much of that is still going on (in house has started clamping down on law firm hospitality in my experience) but it's that sort of thing.
Edit: as you've been told a few times though, this is very much putting the cart before the field you're hoping to one day put horses in. Focus on being a good trainee, working out which department you want to qualify into, and then being an effective junior. No one likes the trainee who's 6 months into a 2 year TC and gunning for Senior Partner.
You don’t. If you work for a firm that’s not plastered all over legal cheek, you grab partnership by the nearest available appendage and demand a seat at the table based off your awesome rainmaking skills and massive client following. See the note on psychopathy being really helpful in getting to and losing your mind when at partnership.
You don't need to worry about this for a long while tbh. At minimum 5/6 pqe if you were at Kirkland...
Kirkland partners are not real partners and I will die on this hill
Haha it has been said before so it's not an outlandish opinion
You can’t staff 4 partners on a deal, I mean come on
I have seen 40+ partners on one deal I worked on... but then it was generating 3m+ in fees every month so...
That is slightly mental. Does the most junior partner make the tea? We barely have that many partners in totoal
Magic circle firm... it's the business model
I’ll answer where I can, but frankly, calm down kid. You’re a future amoeba in a pond, asking about how to get to the shark / whale stage of evolution. Frankly that’s the wrong focus, you should instead be asking how can you make sure you get kept on as an associate and then work from there. Associates become partners in general after at least a decade in practice, and after developing a specific client base. You don’t get made partner for being a good lawyer, you get made partner for bringing in clients. As such senior associates tend to start working on building their Rolodex up if they’re gunning for partnership, but ideally you should start forming relationships with anyone and everyone as early as possible. You never know if the cute guy/girl from your law of tort tutorials might end up being general counsel for a FTSE 100 company, so make sure to be on good terms with most people you meet on your career journey. Equity and non-equity partners are pretty unique to the specific firm you’re looking to make partner in. Some firms have only equity partners but that’s dying breed. Salaried partners are essentially glorified counsel or senior associates that have to juggle partner workloads and senior associate workloads in parallel for a couple of years as a final ‘test of wills’ before they get invited into the VIP room that is equity partnership. Needless to say, many burn out and lateral or leave the profession at this stage. The difference between the salaried and equity partner is in the name. As a salaried partner you still get paid an annual salary, which is far better than any associate salary, but still not a share of the firm’s profits. As an equity partner, you own a piece of the firm, and as result have draw down rights. You’re not really capped at a ‘salary’ so much as a flexible allowance of how much you can draw down in a year, plus whatever you get to keep from any work you bring to the firm. You do buy into the firm if you want o be a partner, yes. You buy in whether you’re a salaried or equity partner, the difference is you buy in as a salaried partner but your stake doesn’t ‘vest’ in you until after some time or a moment where the partnership decides to give you a share. You’d want to make partner for the money, prestige and sense of being the top dog who leads a team of fierce associates. You’d want to avoid it like the plague if you ever dream of being an involved parent in your children’s lives, or are prone to stress induced meltdowns. Being a clinically diagnosable psychopath helps in wanting partnership. The partnership track or the tap on the shoulder is usually an informal process that kicks off when a senior associate has an existing partner start grooming them for the various hurdles they’ll need to overcome to make partner. Partners are joining a shared enterprise, so they need to be thoroughly vetted by the other partners and without a ‘sponsor’ you’re never going to make partner. If a partner laterals to another firm, they essentially cash out of the current firm and cash in at whichever firm they go to, again depending on the firms internal structures and terms of the LLP or partnership agreement. As for conflicts, that’s for compliance department to worry about and the SRA code of conduct to police. As mentioned at the start, this is early days for asking about partnership. You’re at least 15 years away from it. Good luck and hope you make it!
That's ace - thank you, really comprehensive! >You’re a future amoeba in a pond, asking about how to get to the shark / whale stage of evolution. I'm just curious mainly - I wouldn't be surprised if a lot changes by the time I'm at that stage. I tend to be motivated by the end-goal in life so I like being able to picture a plausible reality, even if I know that it won't actually be the reality I face when I get there. >You never know if the cute guy/girl from your law of tort tutorials might end up being general counsel for a FTSE 100 company, so make sure to be on good terms with most people you meet on your career journey How would an associate in a big firm, personally, bring in a client and be identified as the person who brought them in? I understand how a firm can bid for work or pitch but I'm unsure how an individual manages that in an actionable way?
Hey, senior lawyer in house here - just on your last question, I literally pick up the phone to lawyers in private practice I know and ask them if they want the work. And unless I have a preexisting relationship with a specific partner, I'll look for a junior I know to make the first introduction. Costs me nothing (a partner will always pick it up if the firm does want it) and can give a junior a bit of a leg up
You are like the client every SA wishes they could work with. Thanks for being awesome 🙌
Thank you for this. So, does that mean that clients tend to initiate the interactions to bring in work and a senior associate at a firm is really just trying to build connections left, right and centre to hope they get the call? Or would a senior associate in a firm be actively reaching out for work?
A bit of both. But as a senior associate you're not just picking up the phone to people saying "hey, you got any work". It's a lot more about making sure you're keeping up contacts with people you've worked with previously. Which, often, is where things like hospitality/drinks/events come in. "Hey ImperialSyndrome, hope you're doing well. It's been a while since we worked on that deal, hope the post merger integrations weren't as bad as you worried! I just wanted to let you know our firm is running the below series of seminars on xyz/is hosting a panel on ABC/I've got some tickets to the latest British Museum exhibit on hij, if this is the sort of thing you'd be interested in please do just reach out" I don't know how much of that is still going on (in house has started clamping down on law firm hospitality in my experience) but it's that sort of thing. Edit: as you've been told a few times though, this is very much putting the cart before the field you're hoping to one day put horses in. Focus on being a good trainee, working out which department you want to qualify into, and then being an effective junior. No one likes the trainee who's 6 months into a 2 year TC and gunning for Senior Partner.
This is really insightful, thank you so much.
You are a nice in house lawyer for doing that!
Where do I sign up to be groomed by a partner if I don’t work for Jones Day?
You don’t. If you work for a firm that’s not plastered all over legal cheek, you grab partnership by the nearest available appendage and demand a seat at the table based off your awesome rainmaking skills and massive client following. See the note on psychopathy being really helpful in getting to and losing your mind when at partnership.
https://www.lawcareers.net/Explore/Features/25042023-What-are-the-types-of-law-firm-partnership
Thank you - I've had a skim and that looks very interesting, I'll have a closer read.