There seems to be something of a queue forming of firms looking to move away from a rigid lockstep partnership. This trend has been underway for years at mid-tier practices, but it goes further than that.
Allen & Overy morphed into a managed lockstep years ago, while Clifford Chance deploys a salaried rank that it uses heavily for flexibility and a super-point pool that it doesn’t. Now it seems that Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – long standard-bearers of lockstep partnership – are exploring means to usher in more flexibility.
