Defining the successful Big Law partner.

Having worked with law firm partners globally for many years now it's interesting to see how the perception of success is changing. 

When you talk to partners at White Shoe firms in New York, success is easy to define. It's about profitability and financial reward. A successful partner runs a big practice rewarded handsomely for it in return is.

Top tier UK firm partners used to measure their success by reference to whether their practice was ranked as a band 1 practice in one of the major legal directories such as a Chambers and Partners or Legal 500. It was much more about perceived quality, impeccable service levels and the associated prestige, than profitability (whilst not ignoring the fact that the two often go hand in hand).

However, times have now changed. The growing international presence of the US firms, with their big buying power has lured away some of the world's most prestigious partners from their previously perceived to be untouchable ivory towers in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and the Middle East to join the ranks of the most highly paid law firm partners in the world - the White Shoe or Wall Street global elite.

For those left behind, the response has been to stem the flow to the Wall Street elite by driving up profitability, locally.There is no doubt that the pressures associated with being a Big Law partner are only increasing. 

If you want to be a successful law firm these days, wherever you are, you have to have an impressive PEP figure; not only to retain your best people but to be able to attract more of the best people.

In Australia the arrival of the international elite firms has undoubtedly shaken the market with most international arrivals riding the wave of a resources boom and a strong Aussie dollar. 

As the resources boom ended and the Aussie dollar fell, competition amongst the top law firms only got stiffer and as profits started to fall, partners who were, on the face of it loyal to the firms they grew up with, moved to more "successful" firms who could remunerate them more favourably for their consistently large practices. 

The more money a firm has, the more it can invest in attracting successful partners. Success attracts successful people.

Amongst peer groups the most successful partners would be considered those who manage to pull in the best deals and the biggest, most complex cases - the matters and transactions which feature in the press and make headline news. 

But do these matters go to the best or the most successful law firm partners? Are the most talented lawyers getting these deals or are these deals or matters going to the most successful business people within the legal world?

Does being effective at marketing and business development make you a more successful lawyer? Undoubtedly - yes. The partners perceived to be most successful are those rainmaking partners with the biggest origination fees. It is these partners who command the highest respect, and whose voices ring loudest within firms, where money talks . Other partners who may be better lawyers, may struggle to be all round salespeople and fail to bring in the big bucks because they can't promote themselves or their firms as effectively. They might be more intellectual, have an encyclopaedic knowledge of black letter law, offer more innovative or commercial outcomes to clients, but if they aren't able to bring in the big clients or the big deals, then they become service partners and rank below the rainmakers. 

There is of course always a place for the truly intellectual lawyer who is both creative with their legal solutions for clients and who can run rings around their counterparts in a boardroom negotiation or in a courtroom. The intellectually successful lawyer is always held in high regard by their peers, and clients who are not intimidated by their intellectual prowess, but for them to be truly "successful" there has to be a symbiotic relationship with a rainmaker. The formula is simple: rainmaker + intellectual = law firm success. 

Intellectual lawyers who are not strong at business development or who are not interested in business development need to buddy up as soon as possible with a client facing lawyer. It's all about teamwork. 

So for a Big Law firm to be truly successful it requires achieving the right balance of rainmakers and intellectual clout plus a whole lot of hard work. 

Jonathan Walmsley | Principal | Marsden Legal Search & Recruitment.

Tel: +61 2 8014 9050

Email: [email protected]

Dubai | London | Sydney | Toronto

Website: www.marsdengroup.com