Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has decided against modifying its lockstep to a model that would have seen high-performing junior partners rise the ranks more quickly.

The firm had adjusted its partner compensation model in 2018 in an effort to retain star talent. But it had returned to the issue the following year in the wake of more partner departures.

In an interview with Law.com International in July managing partner Stephan Eilers said the firm is "happy and content" with the 2018 reforms to the lockstep and said: "We are not expecting further changes to our lockstep model."

The decision is likely to be a disappointment to some junior partners at the firm. The proposed "performance-based acceleration mechanism" in the system would have enabled them to double their salary to more than £2 million within just a few years.

One former Freshfields partner said that the firm probably felt it did not need to make further changes because it had already "ripped up the rule book on the lockstep" in 2018 when the firm first modified its system by introducing a gated system and putting top-earning partners into the 'superpoint' category.

The 2018 new single ladder scale enabled top performers to make six times more than those at the bottom, lengthening the points scale from 17.5 to 50, to 12 to 60 and adding in gates, in order to retain star talent. This increased the amount partners could earn at the very top of the lockstep from about £2.2 million to £3 million.

Eilers commented that the gate system "works well".

A London partner at the firm added that these changes have delivered "sufficient flexibility" to the partnership and that there has been no "recent noise" about reforming the model further, particularly as the upcoming management election begins to clarify the firm's ongoing agenda.

However, a London-based partner at a U.S. firm said that firms like Freshfields will continue to lose its younger talent unless changes to remuneration are made, as high performing people will be looking to move for more money.

He noted a source of discontent among junior partners will stem from "partners nearing retirement who basically take their foot off the accelerator".

"It's not that U.S. firms overpay", they said, "it's that they pay the fair amount of money for the work being brought in".

The current London Freshfields partner added that despite these changes not being anticipated currently, it may well pop back up on the radar.

"If you asked us whether we needed to change the model 10 years ago, we probably would have said no then too", they said. "But then 10 years later, we changed the model. Never say never."