During recent consulting assignments, managing partners of several law firms of all sizes have expressed their frustration with the fact that every year the total cash compensation paid to non-equity partners those longer-tenured attorneys on track to become equity partners and those attorneys the firm is desirous of retaining but who do not satisfy all of the objective and subjective criteria to become equity partners at the present time continues to increase, yet the latter’s productivity and contributions to revenue remain about the same.
To quote one managing partner, “At what point should the salaries paid to the more highly paid non-equity partners ‘cap out’ and reach a ceiling above which significant raises will not be awarded each year, except for perhaps modest cost-of-living increments?”
