How to make partner at a law firm

The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct define a partner as a member of a partnership, a shareholder in a law firm organized as a professional corporation, or a member of an association authorized to practice law [1]. Inside a firm, the title covers two different jobs. An equity partner owns part of the firm and shares in its profits. A non-equity partner, also called an income or salaried partner, has the title and the client-facing role but is usually paid a fixed salary and holds no ownership stake.

Making partner means the existing partners vote to admit you. At a firm with one tier, that vote makes you an owner. At many firms with two tiers, the first promotion is to non-equity partner, and equity takes a second decision later. In NALP’s last published count, from July 2017 [2], not quite two-thirds [3] of the offices listed in its directory of legal employers reported two or more partnership tiers.

Do you have to pay to become a partner?

Generally only for equity. Equity partners are owners, and firms typically ask new ones for a capital contribution, set by the partnership agreement. Ask how much it is, whether the firm arranges a loan for it, and how and when you get it back if you leave.

Your taxes change too. At a firm taxed as a partnership, partners are not employees [4]. As an equity partner there, you would receive a Schedule K-1 [5] reporting your share of the firm’s income. You may also owe self-employment tax and have to make estimated tax payments. Some firms treat non-equity partners as employees and others as partners, so ask which applies to you. Have the firm’s finance team and your own tax adviser walk you through it before you accept.

Is non-equity partner a step toward equity?

It can be a step or a stopping point. At some firms most non-equity partners move up within a few years; at others, many stay at that tier for the rest of their careers. Ask how many non-equity partners reached equity in the last few years, how long it took them, and what they had in common.

Seven or eight years is the most common track, but there is no standard clock. In NALP’s last published count of track lengths, from July 2017 [2], eight-year tracks were 48% [6] of offices that reported a single figure, and seven-year tracks were 38% [7]. Those counts include both equity and non-equity tracks [8], so they do not tell you how long equity takes at a two-tier firm.

Treat the track as a guide, not a promise. Firms sometimes promote early when the business case is strong, and they defer candidates when it is not. If you move firms as a senior associate, ask how your years will count toward the new firm’s track before you accept.

There is no standard age for making partner. Do the math from your own start. Take your age when you began practicing as an associate and add your firm’s track, adjusted for any credit the firm gives for a clerkship or years at another firm.

Criteria differ by firm, and firms differ in how openly they share them, so ask for yours, in writing if they exist. These are the usual factors:

• Work you can run alone. Partners stop rewriting your drafts. You staff matters, manage clients day to day and catch problems before they reach anyone else.
• Hours and collections. A steady record of billable hours matters, and so does what clients actually paid for them.
• Clients who ask for you. In-house lawyers call you first, and you are the main contact on at least one important relationship.
• A business case. The partners will ask whether there is enough work to keep you busy as a partner and who will pay for it. For equity, expect to show business you brought in, or a plan backed by evidence.
• A sponsor. A mentor gives advice. A sponsor spends political capital on you: staffs you on important matters, introduces you to clients and argues for you when the committee meets.
• Citizenship. Training juniors, recruiting, pro bono and firm committees count at many firms. They help a strong case; they rarely rescue a weak one.
• Timing. A strong candidate can be held back because the practice group cannot support another partner this year. You cannot control that, which is one more reason to build support across the firm.

Partnership is decided over years, not in the year you are up. A rough plan:

• Junior years. Become the associate partners want on their matters: careful, fast and reliable. Learn how your matters make money for the firm. Keep in touch with classmates and peers; some will become the in-house lawyers who hire firms.
• Mid-level years. Pick a niche you can be known for, by industry or by type of problem. Write and speak for the people who hire lawyers in that niche, not for other lawyers. Supervise juniors. Find a sponsor, not just a mentor.
• Two or three years out. Ask the partners you work with whether you are on track and what is missing. Keep a record of work you brought in or expanded, and learn how your firm assigns origination credit. Get to know partners outside your group; they vote too.
• The year you are up. Some firms ask for a written business plan; write one even if yours does not. Make it concrete: the work you do and for whom, the clients you will grow and how, business you have brought in, the partners you will cross-sell with, and what you need from the firm. Prepare for committee interviews the way you would prepare for a client pitch.

For the client side of the case, see business development for lawyers.

For equity partnership, usually yes, or at least a credible path to it. Few associates land a large institutional client on their own, so firms look for evidence instead. That can be work you expanded with an existing client, smaller matters you brought in, referrals that come to you by name, or relationships with in-house lawyers who will buy legal services for years. Promotion to non-equity partner leans more on the quality of your work and the needs of the practice.

Hard, and many associates leave long before a vote. The NALP Foundation’s latest attrition study covered 141 firms [9] of all sizes in the U.S. and Canada. Average associate attrition for the year was 19% [10] across all of them and 16% to 18% at firms of more than 100 attorneys [11]. Of the associates who left, 83% [12] did so within five years of being hired.

The partnership is also less diverse than the associate ranks it draws from. In NALP’s latest Report on Diversity, women were 52.09% [13] of associates but 29.55% [14] of partners, and 26.5% [15] of equity partners at firms with more than one tier. Lawyers of color were 30.20% [16] of associates but 12.67% [17] of partners, and 10.5% [18] of equity partners at firms with more than one tier. Some coaches focus on women lawyers or on lawyers of color and first-generation lawyers.

Not always in words. Watch for these signals:

• You are passed over with no clear plan for next year.
• You are offered a counsel or senior attorney title.
• The partners who used to staff you stop calling.
• Nobody can name the partner who will sponsor you.

Ask directly: "What would have to be true for me to make partner here, and by when?" A vague answer is an answer.

You have options:

• Stay as counsel. Many firms have a long-term role below partner (counsel, of counsel or senior attorney), usually with less pressure to bring in business.
• Move to another firm. A practice too small for partnership at one firm can be large enough at a firm with lower rates or a different client base. Associates change firms often: firms in the NALP Foundation study hired more lateral associates (3,296 [19]) than entry-level ones (3,039 [20]). The market is narrower for a senior associate who was passed over. A move makes the most sense when you bring a niche the new firm needs or work of your own, and the new firm offers a clear path to partnership. If you are weighing a move, read career coach or legal recruiter? and see job search and lateral move coaches.
• Go in-house or into government. See going in-house.
• Leave practice. See alternative careers for lawyers.

The most useful times to bring in a coach are two or three years before the vote, while you can still change the record, and the first year after it. A coach can help you write the business plan, prepare for committee interviews, build a business development routine, handle a difficult sponsor relationship, or decide whether to stay after a pass-over. New partners use coaches to make the shift from doing the work to running teams and bringing in clients; see executive and leadership coaching for lawyers.

Ask your firm first: some firms pay for coaching for senior associates and new partners. If you hire your own coach, look for one who knows law firm economics. Partner-track or new-partner coaching appears on 28 of the 198 listings in this directory, and a background as a law firm partner appears on 9. Compare coaches for partner-track lawyers and new partners, filter the directory for coaches with law firm partner experience, check what a lawyer coach costs, or answer three questions to narrow the list.