Bloomberg Law
Aug. 11, 2015, 5:20 PM UTC

In Lean Times, Law Firms Reconsider Two-Tier Partnership

Casey Sullivan

In the 1990’s and accelerating into the 2000’s, a number of major law firms adopted a two-tier partnership structure, mainly for economic reasons, legal experts said.

A class of non-equity partners on top of partners with an ownership stake created a win-win scenario, it seemed: the firms found a place for talented senior lawyers who may not have the business of a senior rainmaker, while a partnership with fewer equity members provided higher profits.

Recently, though, that model has been coming under pressure.

“When the market went in the downturn, firms found themselves with a lot of non-equity partners who had very ...

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