"Historically there have been too many
lawyers being made equity partners."
If you
had to guess, would you surmise those words come from a
major league headhunter at the top of his game? Isn’t
that akin to poisoning the pond in which you fish? Thankfully,
some individuals at the top of their game choose to use
the platform they’ve achieved as a podium for truth-telling,
regardless of self-interest. [I have always believed
that is incontrovertibly in one’s long-term self-interest
to note even the inconvenient facts, but that’s a topic
for another day.]
Gareth Quarry is the headhunter in question, and he’s London-based. The
occasion for the quote was an interview with Legal
Week, and the occasion for the interview was his opening
up his own new shop after a lengthy—and no doubt comfortable—break,
having sold his previous recruiting firm for £30-million. Quarry
summarizes the changes he’s seen as follows:
"He says that internationalisation — a rarity
in the late 1980s — is now the norm. There are now massive
UK-and US-led vehicles that are progressing through Europe
and increasingly beyond, to Asia."
And the competitive battle is only intensifying: He cites
Linklaters and Allen & Overy as having gotten serious about
their establishing a presence in New York, and, conversely,
says that
"The previous received wisdom about the
US firms in London being only in it for the short term has
been overturned by the financial success of those London offices."
This speaks to a theme of mine that US firms have established
beach-heads in London for specific reasons, not the generic
"we ought to be there," and that UK firms opening in NYC
have, heretofore, been scattered in their strategic emphasis. If
Quarry is right, the US strategy in London is for real and
the UK strategy in New York is getting there. Bravo.
But
there’s
more; he has astute observations about the criteria for ascension to equity
partnership (emphasis supplied):
"A true equity partnership should be a domain reserved
for partners who meet the real criteria for partnership.
These include the ability to deliver the highest legal services
and skills, plus the ability to project
manage efficiently.
A true equity partner should be able to add to every piece
of the equation. But not every lawyer can tick all those
boxes."
"Project management?" Where
out of left field did that come? Well,
out of common sense, or wisdom. A
trial (litigation) or a deal (corporate)
is, essentially, one enormous project. And
if you don’t think it needs to be managed,
then it won’t be. That is to
say, it will be mis-managed.
Can lawyers become more business-like? We’ll
give Quarry the last word:
"Law firms are going to
have to become more ‘corporatised.’
When asked to predict the legal
market in the next five years, Quarry
says: “There
are likely to be 10 super firms which
are UK- and US- parented. The next
tier will be ‘super niche’ firms,
which will be as good in quality
as the top 10 in their niche practices."
So, the questions du jour are: (1) Are
you "corporatised?" and,
(2) Are you super or super-niche?
