A radical repudiation of a time-tested model or a long overdue
dose of sanity?
One imagines those are the reactions to Allen & Overy’s revealing that it’s considering a third career path for associates, neither
"up" nor "out," but "director."
A bit of context: A&O’s head of leveraged finance, Tony
Keal, a partner there for 23 years and "widely regarded" as one
of the top LBO lawyers in Europe, recently jumped
ship to Simpson-Thacher. Not known for his reticence,
last June Keal had sent an email to the entire A&O banking group
grumbling that associates’ salaries were lagging the market and
that the "carrot" of partnership was no longer what it used to
be given pressures to keep the ranks of those with full equity
small. The result, predictably, was neither to increase the
likelihood of associates’ being promoted to full partner nor to
inspire across-the-board raises, but rather to raise the issue
of dissatisfied associates in a rather public way.
Coincidentally, A&O just happened to have recently concluded its
triennial survey of all staff, and has also received feedback from
an "Associates Forum" citing opaque career prospects, lack of guidance
and feedback, and worries that their pay is, indeed, lagging peers.
All this has led to A&O "actively considering" setting up a director
role as a third way for associates—a sort of long-term super-senior
associate position with, presumably, little or no prospect of partnership
but also little or no prospect of being invited to leave assuming
the requisite level of performance is sustained.
Only in our industry do we take trained professionals who are
highly productive, profitable, and conscientious, and rudely show
them the door just as their careers are poised to take off. Imagine
an alternative.
