Parting Friends?

Perhaps the most troubling decision for any partnership's management committee is the determination to force partners from the partnership. Last year, in “The Broken Covenant: A Retrospective ' Partners for Life” (Law Firm Partnership & Benefits Report, April 2008), I examined the reasons for the breakdown of the “covenant” that formerly governed a law firm's relationship among its partners. The thought of terminating partners because business was slow was once unthinkable. Today, the legal world is a much scarier place than it was only a year ago, and the last remnants of the covenant are under further siege. Layoffs continue at a record pace, and law firms and partners struggle to figure out what's next. If one still believes that the practice of law is a profession, rather than a mere vocation, do law firms owe their departing colleagues something other than a pat on the back and three months of severance? This article examines what law firms can do to assist their partners as they show them the door.