Law Firm Partnership: Pros and Cons

Question:

I am a solo owner of a small law firm in Southern Illinois and have been solo for ten years. I have two staff members in the firm. Recently I have been contemplating either bringing in a partner or joining another firm? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Response:

Partnership can offer its lawyers a measure of value independent of the skills, talents, and contributions of its individual partners?

Pros

The advantages that the best law firms have over sole practitioners or groups of lawyers who share overhead include:

Shared skills and expertise
Backup or additional help when needed
A safety net during economic downturns
Shared resources, such as technology, library and research access, forms, and work products
Cross-selling and/or referral of work
Access to the expertise of lawyers in various disciplines
Highly trained associates, legal assistants, and support staff
A firm name or reputation that makes marketing easier
More-sophisticated and highly skilled management
Opportunities for individual lawyers to become highly specialized
A system of partner coaching that brings out the best in each partner
Emotional support, encouragement, and personal recognition
Flexibility that allows lawyers to be more involved in probono, community, and bar activities
Continuation of the firm beyond the tenure of the current owners

Cons

Like anything else in life nothing is free and there are tradeoffs. There can be conflict and interpersonal struggles, large capital contributions, requirements for you to be guarantor on huge firm debt balances, missed paychecks, and loss of independence.

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

Posted at 10:59 PM in Partnership
Tags: Law Firm Partnership

Nov 01, 2011

Law Firm Partnership: Pros and Cons

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