making partner
Any aspiring attorney seeking a rise to the top of their firm has one clear goal, joining the partner ranks. But what does that mean exactly, and how do you set yourself up to achieve this?
Types of Partner
Making partner seems to be the natural career progression. You join as an associate and once you’ve passed the six year mark you’re vying for that title. However, the title partner can be misleading and you should understand what type of partner you want to be in order to understand whether it is something you should be pushing for.
Broadly speaking there are two main types of partner, an equity partner and a salaried partner. An equity partner is the traditional model, an owner of the firm who is paid out a monthly “drawing” based on performance and gets a share of the profits at the end of the year. They have voting rights and are typically the most senior members of the firm. To make equity you really need to be generating business and have a book of clients.
By contrast, a salaried partner is a title. In most firms, you’re a senior associate with “junior partner” on your stationary. It may come with a pay raise, your charge out rate will go up and you will have a sense of pride at achieving the title, but you need to approach this with some caution. A “partner” without a book of business can seem to be a slight misnomer. It can be difficult to lateral to a new firm as a “junior partner”, because once presented as a partner, the question asked will be, “what’s the value of your book?”. If the answer is zero, it can be the end of the discussion.
A positive approach to take when faced with a salaried partner role, is to leverage it to build your book of business. You might notice that clients see you in a different light as a partner. You will be viewed as the most senior person on deals. Some firms that don’t offer salaried partner positions often have deals stacked with “senior associates”, and an equity partner. If you’re trying to build a book, and have work allocated to you, it can be harder to get work from clients as a senior associate, but a junior partner carries more clout. This can also help when trying to join the client as an in-house attorney.
How do you make Partner?
First, you must know what the firm expects you to achieve to make you a partner. The larger firms typically have clear criteria set out, smaller firms may not. Some firms have no potential to make partner, and they make that clear going in. Understanding the individual firm requirements is simple if you ask. Then you can make a plan for achieving this goal.
As discussed above, the essence of a partner really is the ability to generate business. You need to be developing your own book of clients. Some firms will allow you to work on an existing smaller client of the firm and take over ownership of a client. Maybe a partner hasn’t got the time to service a smaller client and you can try to run with it. Other than that, you really need to be networking for new business. You need to leverage all of your contacts, whether that be through family members or your alumni networks. Everyone has a golden egg out there in their network, it is a question of continually allocating time to marketing every week to find it. Once you establish a small book, you keep working away and grow that book. Your firm will support your efforts to bring in business, see how they can help you.
Building a book of business at an Am Law 100 ranked international firm can be very challenging. Larger clients have very strong relationships with partners, and it can be impossible to step in and own such a client. Often firms are appointed to a client’s panel of attorneys and it is hard to take a client to another firm that’s not on the panel. Most attorneys will focus on building up smaller clients to establish a book. Relationships can be forged with one small startup, right the way through to their becoming a household name.
A good example of this is the story of attorney Monty Moran, whose friend invited him to his house to try a burrito recipe one day, and eventually set up the first Chipotle store selling them in Denver. As the empire grew, Monty’s firm Messner Reeve LLP advised all the way through to going public. The work this generated was huge, including the real estate work for the stores and the franchising, to the eventual IPO. Monty is now the company President of the $12 billion business.
Is Partnership for you?
When considering whether you want to make partner at your firm, you should look at the existing partnership and question whether it is what you want. Will you fit in with them and do you want to be doing what they are? Some partners work almost every day of the year, all hours and are always on call. Is that something you want? It maybe that partnership at your firm is not what you want, but it might be at another firm. Speak to your network, speak to friends at other firms and try to establish if you’re in the right place to make partner.
Making partner is a huge milestone in your life. As a professional, it is a huge accomplishment to take that title. You might find that once you join partnership, your whole approach to work changes for the better. You have a new identity, and reach a new social status. But your job also changes dramatically. You’re no longer able to focus on legal work, you have other considerations most importantly generating and maintaining business for the firm and managing all underneath you.
If you decide you do want to be a partner, start working on it from day one of your legal career.