Ann Israel is the legal profession's Dear Abby. A New York legal recruiter since 1979, Ann is a past president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants. Advice for the Lawlorn is updated every Tuesday.

Q:I was up for partner and was told that I was "deferred" for a year. Based on all of the intelligence I have gathered the deferral appears to be for real but, of course, no guarantees. Am I better off interviewing and trying to secure another position before or after the next decision is made?

Deferred

Dear Deferred: Wow, how do I answer this question?

Are you a gambler? What do you think the odds are that you will be voted into the partnership next year? I have never done a study on how many deferred associates make partner the following year, so I really have no idea what the percentage might be. I only know that I see so many people who did not have good luck with the deferral process.

When I read your question my first thought was if I happened to be in your shoes, I would get my resume updated and start interviewing right away. To be up for partner tells me that you must be fairly senior at this point in your career. Being fairly senior, and no matter what your practice area may be, tells me that there will not be as many opportunities available at law firms as there might have been three, four or five years previously. You are at the right level for an in-house position, but depending on your practice area, they can be far and few between.

The only problem with waiting is that you will be one year more senior, and the jobs that were available today will not be available in a year from now. Yes, the intelligence you gathered indicates that the deferral is for real, but you certainly don't know what is going to happen to your department over the next 12 months. There are so many variables.

For example, the firm might hire several new partners into that department during the coming year. The department might very well become top-heavy with partners, and the firm could then decide not to elect any more partners into that group for the next few years.

Perhaps the rainmakers in that group might be lured away to another firm, and all of a sudden that department has no business to support a new partner. Unless you suddenly develop a big book of business (which I assume you do not have or else your firm would have elected you to the partnership this year), there would be no way that the firm would elevate you to partner status.

The firm might suddenly merge with another firm, and then everything would change. Your old firm may not have the same control it did, and your chances of partnership could possibly not exist any longer.

Or a year from now you could be elected to the partnership.

There is a slight chance that a new firm might bring you into their partnership, but unless you are coming in with business, that is unlikely. You might wind up coming into a new firm as counsel with a promise of a partnership vote in X amount of time (each firm differs in the amount of time you must be there in order to be considered). Or, you might have to come in as a senior associate and play the game with the other associates in the firm.

Again, if I traded places with you, I would go out looking to see what my options might be. What do you have to lose? The only way to answer the question, should you stay at your firm without taking a look at what else is out there, is to ask, are you a gambler? Good luck!

Sincerely,
Ann Israel
President, Ann Israel & Associates