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The Partnership Dilemma and a Moment of Clarity [Jamie Barnes] Partnership is the ultimate goal for many attorneys - but what happens to those attorneys that wait it out at a firm and never move beyond the senior associate level?
The Partnership Dilemma and the Moment
lawyer cannot help but ask him- or herself
and the attorney’s position in it. To be an
of Clarity We see it all the time: A graduate of Yale or Stanford Law or wherever joins a highly regarded international law firm in New York City or Los Angeles. The lures are spectacular: Name brand clients known worldwide; Powerful senior partners, a few of which may even be media figures; back-up support staff to dream for -proofreaders, legal assistants, schedulers; plus fellow lawyers equally brilliant and success-driven. For all-work-and-no-play achievers, such an achievement is like landing in Heaven. All that hard work has paid off.
the following questions:
associate is, in a sense, to always remain in a form to indenture to the firm’s partners. This
1. Am I cutting it? And just what is required
may well be tolerable through the first, say,
to ‘cut it.?’ Am I up to this and can I keep it
four years, when the attorney is establish-
up for 30 years?
ing work habits and developing skills to
2. Do some partners prefer working with
last a life time. But such indentured status
certain associates? If so, what are these as-
begins to grow somewhat stale as the typical
sociates doing that I’m not?
associate begins to run a docket of cases
3. Which types of practice and which partners
with minimal partner supervision. Attorneys
seem to hold the most power?
typically report what can only be described
4. Which partner might become my mentor?
as a moment of ‘clarity’ somewhere between
Will any partner ever take on this role with
the end of their third and beginning of their
me? How do I get the process rolling?
sixth years.
5. Which associates seem to be making the
The panic, if it can be called that, sets in
most headway?
quickly.
6. And if certain associates do seem to be making more headway, why is this happen-
The attorney has begun to realize that the
You may not recognize the panic, or it
ing? What are they doing that I’m not doing?
senior partners he or she works with every
Or, what am I doing wrong?
day are not gods, and that most of the work
7. How can I stand out from the other associ-
is routine and does not require a brilliant,
ates without causing some sort of backlash
break-through intellectual analysis. In short,
from them?
the romance is gone. What is left is a future
8. Finally, how long will it take me to make
stretching into decades filled with ‘more of
partner? What are my chances? Who is likely
the same.’ The attorney realizes that he or
to be my primary competition?
she is just as competent as everyone else but
may rest just beneath the surface of your conscious life. This panic is centered on the uncertainty of a young lawyer’s life. The firm’s standards may at times seem impossibly high. A typo on a document might send a pantheon of powerful partners into a fury. The hours can be long. A client might want
has flaws. Perhaps these flaws have to do
something overnight. There are partners
with social-interaction skills. Perhaps there
with no private life, spending all their working hours at the firm. There appear to be no benchmarks other than hours billed -and the more hours the better. Stories circulate, such as: At X Firm, one senior associate billed 3,100 hours his eighth year and another billed 2,950, the associate with the most billed hours making partner and the other lawyer forced to leave the firm. Such a story may be merely apocryphal but serves to highlight the overriding importance of billable hours. In this type of environment, a
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The Moment of Clarity
Metaphorically Moving From Hell to Heaven
is a lack of connection with certain partners that may prove to be harmful. Perhaps the
Being an associate in a large firm can be
attorney finds it impossible to bring in new
pleasant when a collegial atmosphere exists
business. Perhaps there is a relationship
nurtured by partners, associates, support
with another associate that causes daily,
staff and clients. If an attorney lands in a
gnawing resentment. What the Moment of
practice area which he or she finds intellec-
Clarity amounts to is a combination of sum-
tually stimulating, so much the better. But
ming up one’s experience in the firm and a
even if the work situation is optimal, there
simultaneous dropping away of the veils of
remains doubt lying just below the surface,
expectation, idealization, hope and promise.
an angst that concerns the unknown future
One’s life and one’s position in the firm is
continued on back
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CAREER COUNSELOR’S CORNER
seen simply and starkly for what it is.
One can become an unrivaled expert in some narrow but revenue-producing corner of the
The Search for Legal Nirvana
law. Clients with specific types of problems will be drawn to the firm because it has a
What rests behind this Moment of Clarity
reputation for solving them. The associate
is the contrast between what one’s life has
with expertise in this field will get the bulk
become and what an individual seeks, which
of this new work or have an important say in
is complete control over one’s life. Such
how this work is conducted. One can bill more
freedom, if there is indeed such a state, is in-
hours than his or her competition (other asso-
stinctively sought, and this complete freedom
ciates in the same class). One can get visibility
is envisioned by most associates as earning a
outside the firm by serving on commissions
partnership in a big firm. Getting a partner-
and boards. One can marry the managing
ship offer is the problem. There are no rules
partner’s daughter or son. One can watch as
to follow, no G.P.A. to be achieved, not LSAT to
other associates jump ship and hope that he
pass. Instead, political skills, sheer determi-
or she will be the last one standing at the end
nation and billable hours come into play. It
of eight or so years.
may seem unfair that having run the gauntlet of high school grades, SAT, college grades,
Conclusion
LSAT, law school G.P.A., law review, federal clerkship, and acceptance by a name-brand
Okay, so you’ve got big-time angst. You don’t
firm, the battle begins with new rules not cast
know what to do. Here’s a solution. Let the
in stone. These rules, as undefined as they
situation play out. The worst that can happen
are, seem to call upon one’s ability to form
is that you must leave big-firm life and try
bonds and deflect criticism. They seem to
for happiness at a medium-sized firm. You
involve outworking everyone else. They seem
might not make partner or find happiness
to involve who can parlay enough family and
there either, but you are more likely to keep
other contacts into billable clients. And what
your job and develop a life outside the firm. In
does any of this have to do with being a good
such a scenario, the trajectory of your life is
lawyer?!!
dictated for you by outside forces. Not a pleasant thought. On the other hand, everyone’s
The problem with the associate’s search for
life is dictated by outside forces, even those
ways to make partner is that just running up
who stayed behind at your prior firm and
the most billable hours is not enough. On the
made partner. For instance, they will die at a
other hand, bringing in several million dollars
moment not likely to be of their own choos-
of business and being able to keep at least
ing. In the meanwhile there will be deaths in
nominal control of it would certainly guaran-
the family, divorces, possible disappointments
tee a partnership -or, as a Plan B, the ability
with children and other unpleasantness. The
to move elsewhere with clients in tow. If one
key is to be content with a combination of what
can achieve this, the associate’s personality
you have achieved and what is forced upon
conflicts inside the firm, if any, become less
you. Partnerships are not at the center of such
important.
considerations. You only think they are if you allow the culture of the law firm to dominate your thinking. It is in the Moment of Clarity
But What If A Lawyer Doesn’t Want To Be A
that you can gain a new perspective. Happi-
Rainmaker?
ness won’t likely be the result, but a sense of calm and acceptance will make the rest of
What then? Can one still make partner without bringing in clients? Yes. There are other ways.
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your life that much better.