Let it rain

Answer phone; get work; do work. Answer phone; get work; do work. For many law firm partners, life in the pre-crunch years really was that simple. With deals in such plentiful supply, getting a new instruction was often just a case of picking up the phone. Partners didn’t have to leave their desks, let alone the office.

Then, one gloomy day last September, all that changed. The phones suddenly stopped ringing, as the collapse of Lehman Brothers saw the market switch from feast to famine in the blink of an eye.

For junior partners, who as a generation were accustomed to more favourable economic climes, it was the onset of a brave new world.

The sustained bull run that culminated in the boom years of the mid-noughties had a profound impact on the market’s leading law firms. Most obvious was the steroidal shot in the arm such relentless deal activity had on law firm financials. Driven by a superheated transactional market, turnover grew at breakneck speed and profitability reached new highs. Bars were raised to such an extent that a £1m PEP was no longer an aspirational milestone for the Magic Circle, it was the absolute bare minimum.

But it also had other, more subtle effects on the way that firms and practices were structured. Although a gross generalisation, partners – particularly those at the larger firms – can be separated into three distinct categories: finders, minders and grinders. The finders are the rainmakers – the big-name stars with the skills, charisma and market profile to win new clients and bring in the business. The next level down is the minders – those who help to manage and maintain the existing relationships established by the finders, but don’t develop any new ones themselves. Finally, you have the grinders – those who actually execute the work, but have little or no client-facing responsibilities. These roles have remained largely constant over the past decade, but the balance between the three groups has progressively changed.

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