The traditional law firm. Composed of partners: the firm owners who toiled in the associate vineyards for several years and who were ultimately rewarded with the brass ring. A partnership, a piece of the ownership of the firm. A piece of security that tied you to the firm and your partners. On the other side were the associates—those who worked hard toward partnership and the security it brought.
But this model and accompanying culture is changing before our eyes, especially in Big Law (if it hasn’t already). More and more, law firms are moving away from the idyllic cultural-centric guild they view themselves as and toward a corporate model. A model where there are only a few owners, and the rest are mere employees. And this change has profound repercussions on what it means to be a lawyer in a big law firm.
Want proof:
A recent analysis of data collected by ALM Intelligence shows that in 81 of the 151 firms surveyed (well over half), membership in nonequity partnership tiers grew in 2020. Fifty-one saw growth of more than 5% in the nonequity level. This trend was particularly pronounced among the Am Law 50. The nonequity partner tier grew at dozens of large law firms, while far fewer firms shrank their nonequity tier. (For a good discussion of these results, see this recent article byLizzy McLellan and Christine Simmons.
The ranks of nonequity partners (employees) continue to swell while the ranks of equity partners (owners) may be shrinking
