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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
SO LONG, PARTNER – It’s never really a good time to be an unproductive law firm partner, but right now it’s particularly tough to justify. As Dylan Jackson reports, many firms are looking for ways to “right-size” as economic turmoil stalls profits—and that often means “counseling out” equity and nonequity partners, many of whom are in the hard-hit corporate space. “Those conversations are happening. I know it,” said Peter Zeughauser, a law firm management consultant at the Zeughauser Group. ”We’ve talked to some of our clients about it. It’s going to pick up steam.” And while removing an attorney from a firm’s partnership used to require a partner-wide vote and supermajority, legal industry experts said many firms have amended their partnership agreements in recent years to allow for partners to be removed by an executive or management committee vote. Those firms are now taking advantage of that streamlined process.
