Compensation guarantees aren’t unusual for partners making lateral moves. But lengthy, multiyear guarantees are, and they might be getting rarer, according to some legal industry recruiters.

Only a little more than one in 10 lateral partners in a survey published this year said they’d received pay guarantees for more than two full years. And, industry observers say, while such agreements can offer some certainty and help each party get acclimated to the other, they can also signal a lack of buy-in, or in a worst-case scenario, foster resentment from other partners.