Career Development --> Making Partner

Transitioning to Partner

It is the end of the year and law firms are beginning to announce the elevation of their new partnership classes. Although 2002 has been a very slow year, especially in transactional areas of practice, the associates who are up for partner this year have proven themselves during boom times. While firms are being conservative in their decisions, they investing in their futures, looking forward to an eventual upturn in the economic cycle. Thus, this year’s partnership classes are slightly smaller than those of last year, but there has not been another dramatic drop off as we saw in 2001 as compared to 2000.

Besides sharing in the firm’s profits (or losses), and having a vote, what does it really mean to become a partner? As an associate, working long hours in the trenches, you might think that, once you become a partner, you can rest on your laurels. Wrong. When you are elevated to partnership, you have to work even harder. As an associate, your job is to bill lots of hours and develop your legal skills. As a partner, you still are expected to produce quantities of excellent work for your clients, but you will also have several important new responsibilities. You will be expected to generate and maintain clients, supervise and mentor associates and staff, and participate in the firm’s business activities.

Once you become a partner, you have a responsibility to the firm as an institution. In the eyes of the public—clients, potential clients, associates and staff—what you say and do reflects on the firm. In order to live up to these new expectations, you will need to develop and hone your managerial and leadership skills. As a new owner, you will need to educate yourself on the business of the firm. Learn as much as possible about the finances, politics, and strategic plans of your firm, including how your particular practice fits into your department and the firm as a whole. Study the strategic plan to determine what you, personally, can do to facilitate your firm’s success. Choose particular committees, activities, or issues where you can make a meaningful contribution. And, very importantly, observe the interaction between the partners in your firm so that you can learn to be most effective in being heard and getting things accomplished.

As an associate, your salary and benefits were part of the firm’s overhead. As a partner, you are now responsible for generating the revenues from which overhead is paid. Your compensation will be based upon your contributions—both financial and administrative—and you will have new fiscal responsibilities. Learn your firm’s numbers, by practice group and as a whole: revenues, expenses, leverage ratio, average billable hours, profitability, cash flow, etc. Take a class on accounting for lawyers, if necessary, because as an owner, you need to really understand how your business works. On the personal finance side, you probably now will also find that you have to pay for your own benefits, such as insurance and parking, which the firm provided for you as an associate. You may also have to pay quarterly taxes and, if you are an equity partner, make a capital contribution to the firm. So, you may need to learn new personal money management skills as well.

In addition to keeping your billable hours up, as a partner, you will also have non-billable administrative responsibilities. You may be called upon to assist with firm wide activities such as recruiting, training, staffing, and billing and collection. You may find yourself on committees dealing with compensation, associate reviews, technology and office systems, non-lawyer staff, and business planning. Working as a team with partners from other departments within the firm will help you get an overall view of the business of the firm, and make you a more effective partner. Each partner will have strengths and weaknesses in these various areas. Pitch in and help out wherever your talents are needed. The idea is to create a partnership that is greater than the sum of its parts.

One of the most important responsibilities of a partner is to make rain. A wise associate has been planning for this day, and has begun business development activities along the way. Since bringing in business means building relationships, it takes time to show results. It is best not to have to start from a standstill when you become a partner. But, now is the time to begin, if you have not already laid the groundwork, or to step up the efforts if you already have begun to plant those seeds. Partners need to make a concerted effort to keep a high profile by regularly writing articles, giving speeches, and participating in bar association and trade group activities in order to promote themselves and the firm. Furthermore, you must also be thinking about cross-selling the services of your partners to your new or potential clients, as well as making sure that your partners are aware of your capabilities so that they can sell your services to their clients. And, once you get the business in the door, you will be responsible for keeping track of assigning the tasks, monitoring their progress, ensuring the quality of the work product, and overseeing billings and collections.

To get a handle on all of these new tasks, a new partner must prioritize and organize. Take the time to set up systems to, for example, keep track of billings and collections, contact management for business development purposes, collected information for potential articles or presentations, and status reports on tasks assigned. Observe or ask how others manage these tasks, and use the computer or paper files as best suits you—and keep them current. Also, learn to delegate appropriately and as much as possible. Time spent planning and organizing will reap rewards in terms of productivity and efficiency in the long run, and—perhaps most importantly—decrease your stress level so you can relax (a little!) and enjoy your hard-earned promotion to partner.

Career Development --> Making Partner Transitioning to Partner It is the end of the year and law firms are beginning to announce the elevation of their new partnership classes. Although 2002 has been a very slow year, especially in transactional areas of practice, the associates who are up for partner this year have proven themselves during boom times. While firms are being conservative in their decisions, they investing in their futures, looking forward to an eventual upturn in the economic cycle. Thus, this year’s partnership classes are slightly smaller than those of last year, but there has not been another dramatic drop off as we saw in 2001 as compared to 2000. Besides sharing in the firm’s profits (or losses), and having a vote, what does it really mean to become a partner? As an associate, working long hours in the trenches, you might think that, once you become a partner, you can rest on your laurels. Wrong. When you are elevated to partnership, you have to work even harder. As an associate, your job is to bill lots of hours and develop your legal skills. As a partner, you still are expected to produce quantities of excellent work for your clients, but you will also have several important new responsibilities. You will be expected to generate and maintain clients, supervise and mentor associates and staff, and participate in the firm’s business activities. Once you become a partner, you have a responsibility to the firm as an institution. In the eyes of the public—clients, potential clients, associates and staff—what you say and do reflects on the firm. In order to live up to these new expectations, you will need to develop and hone your managerial and leadership skills. As a new owner, you will need to educate yourself on the business of the firm. Learn as much as possible about the finances, politics, and strategic plans of your firm, including how your particular practice fits into your department and the firm as a whole. Study the strategic plan to determine what you, personally, can do to facilitate your firm’s success. Choose particular committees, activities, or issues where you can make a meaningful contribution. And, very importantly, observe the interaction between the partners in your firm so that you can learn to be most effective in being heard and getting things accomplished. As an associate, your salary and benefits were part of the firm’s overhead. As a partner, you are now responsible for generating the revenues from which overhead is paid. Your compensation will be based upon your contributions—both financial and administrative—and you will have new fiscal responsibilities. Learn your firm’s numbers, by practice group and as a whole: revenues, expenses, leverage ratio, average billable hours, profitability, cash flow, etc. Take a class on accounting for lawyers, if necessary, because as an owner, you need to really understand how your business works. On the personal finance side, you probably now will also find that you have to pay for your own benefits, such as insurance and parking, which the firm provided for you as an associate. You may also have to pay quarterly taxes and, if you are an equity partner, make a capital contribution to the firm. So, you may need to learn new personal money management skills as well. In addition to keeping your billable hours up, as a partner, you will also have non-billable administrative responsibilities. You may be called upon to assist with firm wide activities such as recruiting, training, staffing, and billing and collection. You may find yourself on committees dealing with compensation, associate reviews, technology and office systems, non-lawyer staff, and business planning. Working as a team with partners from other departments within the firm will help you get an overall view of the business of the firm, and make you a more effective partner. Each partner will have strengths and weaknesses in these various areas. Pitch in and help out wherever your talents are needed. The idea is to create a partnership that is greater than the sum of its parts. One of the most important responsibilities of a partner is to make rain. A wise associate has been planning for this day, and has begun business development activities along the way. Since bringing in business means building relationships, it takes time to show results. It is best not to have to start from a standstill when you become a partner. But, now is the time to begin, if you have not already laid the groundwork, or to step up the efforts if you already have begun to plant those seeds. Partners need to make a concerted effort to keep a high profile by regularly writing articles, giving speeches, and participating in bar association and trade group activities in order to promote themselves and the firm. Furthermore, you must also be thinking about cross-selling the services of your partners to your new or potential clients, as well as making sure that your partners are aware of your capabilities so that they can sell your services to their clients. And, once you get the business in the door, you will be responsible for keeping track of assigning the tasks, monitoring their progress, ensuring the quality of the work product, and overseeing billings and collections. To get a handle on all of these new tasks, a new partner must prioritize and organize. Take the time to set up systems to, for example, keep track of billings and collections, contact management for business development purposes, collected information for potential articles or presentations, and status reports on tasks assigned. Observe or ask how others manage these tasks, and use the computer or paper files as best suits you—and keep them current. Also, learn to delegate appropriately and as much as possible. Time spent planning and organizing will reap rewards in terms of productivity and efficiency in the long run, and—perhaps most importantly—decrease your stress level so you can relax (a little!) and enjoy your hard-earned promotion to partner.	Hot Tips The Search Planning Your Search Assessing Your Marketability Resumes and Cover Letters Interviewing Strategies Special Circumstances Following Through Compensation Making the Transition Career Development Getting Ahead In a Down Market Making Partner Hot Practice Areas Law Firm Economics California Legal Market View our most recent Hot Tip - Silent Eloquence, posted 7/13/10 The California Bar Exam Listen to Your Recruiter Check out our new book, "The Right Moves: Job Search and Career Development Strategies for Lawyers"

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