Stop Being in the Dark About Your Partnership Prospects
Are you thinking that this year is when you make partner in your law firm? If so, it’s time to evaluate how to achieve that goal. If you don’t fully understand your firm’s approach to partnership and how you specifically are viewed as a candidate, you need to get smart on those points sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you may not have all the information and tools you need to become a partner.
There are many factors that law firms consider when evaluating someone for partnership, yet the weight given to those factors and how they are evaluated vary considerably among firms. In most firms, you will spend a significant amount of the year prior to your nomination developing and refining your arguments for election, asking for input from your colleagues, preparing your partnership memo, and getting ready for your interview. But it’s important to begin analyzing your likelihood of election to partner sooner, so that you know where you stand earlier on as a potential candidate.
The partners of the firm will collect and review a lot of information on potential candidates, and begin forming opinions about them even in advance of the formal partnership nomination process. And so, before then you will want to think about how your candidacy and prospects might already be perceived, and what questions may arise about your nomination. A few questions to consider include:
What are the essential factors I must meet to even be considered for partnership, such as a certain number of years of practice, length of time at the firm, and a minimum number of billable hours achieved consistently over multiple years?
Is there enough capacity and the right leverage in my practice group to support another partner being added? Do I add skills that the firm is looking for at the partner level in order to meet client needs?
How large must my book of business be, particularly if my firm is a one-tier partnership of equity partners? Or how otherwise can I provide evidence of the likelihood that I can generate business, either to expand existing firm relationships with clients or to add new ones?
Is the kind of business that I can grow for my firm in line with the firm’s overall goals, including economic expectations about the billable rates, volume and profit margins of the work?
Are there issues that may negatively impact my candidacy – e.g., working on client matters with lower billing rates, substantial discounts that impact financial profitability, or concerns with whether I am doing partner-level work for which the market will pay higher partner-level billable rates?
What level of support do I have from firm partners who are highly influential in partnership decisions? Will they not only lend their name to my candidacy but also actively advocate for me? Do I have enough sponsors like this to build substantial support for me across offices and practice groups? Have I worked with a sufficiently diverse group of attorneys across the firm so that my work is well known, and consistently held in high regard?
Do I need clients who will advocate on my behalf and speak to how the value of my work is important to their relationship with the firm?
What financial metrics will the firm be looking for in examining my case for partnership, including over multiple years, with specific clients as well as overall in my practice? Have those expected benchmarks changed from past years as the firm has refined or revised its financial strategies?
Are there other factors that might impact whether and when I might be elected to partnership, such as an economic downtown or a change in the firm’s partnership structure?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you may be in the dark about what it takes to make partner. And without knowing what it takes, you don’t know what you might be able to do to improve your chances of success.
You can begin to gain an advantage by speaking with members of the partnership nomination committee, your practice group chairs, attorneys who have recently been elected to the partnership, and other colleagues who are good sources of information. Working with a coach who understands the partnership process of law firms, including how to develop a strategic plan and anticipate the hurdles that you may face, can also be helpful. Making partner is not a simple or easy undertaking, but you can approach it more effectively when you are equipped with the right information and tools to get you started.
If you’re focused on your partnership prospects and are trying to determine the best steps to move your candidacy forward, please reach out to me to discuss how I can help you get started on that path. Contact Laura