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Linklaters extends restructuring with up to 70 partners facing the axe

There seem to be other issues at work - not just planning for a future recession; Top among these would appear to be maintaining the incomes of the great and the good at all costs. Given it is less than two generations since L&P had 20 partners perhaps it is tiem to consider teh whole governance and ownership structure of large law firms. The partnership model has changed to the point where today partner to qualified staff ratiosn have ballooned out to 1:10 from the 1:3 of a generation ago. Perhaps it is time to consider a model where partner numbers are reduced (after all who really needs 'directors' by the hundred for a single entitiy) and introduce a new model with graduated scales of income. Whilst there may still be a some status in being a partner the power/control function is illusory and largely irrelevant. A more equable distribution of profits woudl lead to greater stability all round. After all who really believes partners actually earn 1-2 Million? It defies logic as individuals they don't 'own' the client relationship the partnership does. Their contibution in fees is generally considreably less than their cost of 'employment'. The suggestion that partner incomes is a reward for all those years at the coal face simply doesn't hold water as the volume of partner mobility makes so clear. Plan fo rthe future yes, but get a better more sustainabel model. What we are seeing now is tinkering and slavish adherence to the status quo. Where is the leadership and innovation?

16-Jan-2012

8:41 pm