Partners are naturally emotional about the equity returns on their capital. The legal market is obsessive about fees per capita, equity spread and profits per partner. No other profession is so openly transparent year on year in revealing comparative performance information for benchmarking.
Many a potential merger has probably stumbled as a result of divergent profits per partner and capital requirements of the merging firms. Managing staff productivity and new business generation are high on the agenda of all successful law firms to support the profit goals.
