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Oct 31, 2012

Developing a Law Firm Associate Career Progression/Partnership Admission Program

Question:

Our firm is a 14 lawyer firm in Phoenix, Arizona. We are a new firm (formed 8 years ago) and we have 5 equity partners and 9 associates. Several of the associates have been with us since day one (8 years) and are asking us about partnership. We want to be fair and keep our top talent. What are your thoughts on this topic?

Response:

A common complaint that we hear from our interviews of associates is lack of feedback on short term performance and what is takes to "make partner" and how they are progressing toward eventual partnership. During a recent interview an associate told me – I would like to know:

  1. What does it take to become a partner – consideration criteria? What do I have to do?
  2. What is the timeline for consideration?
  3. How am I doing – am I partnership material?
  4. What does partnership mean in this firm?
  5. What are the mechanics of admission? (Is there a buy-in)

I suggest that you and your partners consider developing what I call a Law Firm Associate Career Progression/Partnership Program and put it in writing. Here is an approach you might take:

  1. Determine if you want more partners? How many – evaluate the appropriate ratio.
  2. Consider non-equity partners as a first step and determine what that means.
  3. Establish a minimum number of years for consideration – i.e. seven years.
  4. Determine competencies and expectation for associate development and document.
  5. Develop an associate performance evaluation form and conduct formal annual evaluations.
  6. Develop partner admission criteria (associate to non-equity and non-equity to equity partner) and document.
  7. Write-up an overall program document and include as attachments the competencies document, the performance evaluation form, and the admission criteria document.
  8. Present the program to associates in a live meeting format to launch the program.

Regarding equity partnership – make the criteria tough – and require a buy-in or capital contribution. Business development and a client following should be required by most firms for the equity tier. 

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

Posted at 10:08 AM in Partnership
Tags: Associate Career Progression, Associate talent management, Law Firm Associate Partnership Track

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