‘It was so long ago,’ reflects Malcolm Sweeting, Clifford Chance’s (CC) senior partner, of his promotion to partner in 1990. ‘My only involvement in the process was playing football in Hackney one winter when a junior partner sidled up. “It’s all looking good,” he cryptically confided, before sidling away. Later, the senior partner rang me to say congratulations.’

Nearly 30 years from that night, the once obtuse path to partnership has been replaced with an excess of procedure, meaning the latest generation of partners has gone through a very different tournament to their colleagues currently nearing retirement. Continue reading “All restless souls – City firms braced as partnership goes Millennial”

The Partnership Scoreboard – Trends and tribulations

As part of our analysis of the modern realities of partnership, Legal Business collected data on partnership rounds for the last three years across three groups: the top ten UK law firms by revenue, the ten US-based law firms with the largest organically-built London branches and a select group of mid-tier City players.

The most obvious observation is that there has been – barring a few exceptions – little easing up of the post-banking crisis clampdown on making up partners. One City head of a major US firm notes: ‘It’s harder to become a partner. All the firms are focused on profitability, the motivations are a lot more financial. Firms will always question the business case.’ Continue reading “Crunching the data – Trends and tribulations”