Twenty years ago, partnership was the pre-eminent form of governance in most major professional sectors. In the 1980s, it began to decline in sectors such as accounting, consulting and investment banking to the extent that almost 50 of the top 100 accounting firms are now organised as privately-held or publicly-quoted corporations. So far, law firms have been slow to follow their lead, but in the UK the new Legal Services Bill brings with it the possibility of change.
Does this decline in the partnership form of governance matter? Should we care? The answer is, unambiguously, yes.
