The first post-Clementi shoe is about to drop in the UK, and it’s a
fascinating one indeed. [For those of you who haven’t been paying
attention, the "Clementi Commission" proposed fundamental reforms of
the way UK law firms are governed, essentially all of which have been
adopted and are or soon will be effective. Among the eye-openers
in the lot were permitting non-lawyers to be equity owners of firms,
which is the peg for today’s post.]
Check this out:
| Likelihood of different practice managers being admitted to the partnership |
| Likely | Not likely | Already a partner | Do not have one | |
| Finance | 100 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marketing/business development | 82 | 12 | 3 | 3 |
| HR | 82 | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| IT | 67 | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| Source: Wheeler Associates/McCallum Layton |
Such are the results of a survey of
51 managing partners from the top 100 UK and Welsh firms (Scottish firms
are exempt from Clementi). Will this finally begin to break
down the caste-iron (sorry, couldn’t resist) barrier between lawyers
and "mere" business managers? One can hope.
Of course, I am a lawyer so this should make no difference to my personal
estate: Were I not, however, I’d be researching the London
housing market.
