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How Many Excess Partners Does Your Firm Have?

By Hugh A. Simons
December 01, 2017

It is widely recognized that Big Law has surplus partner capacity. In a recent Altman Weil survey, over two-thirds of firm leaders reported their equity partners were not sufficiently busy; nearly 80% said the same of nonequity partners. What is less well recognized is just how massive this surplus has become, how unevenly it is spread across firms in different profitability cohorts, and what it portends for when the next downturn hits.

The last time partners were fully utilized was in 2007, the year before the great recession hit. In aggregate, the number of partners has grown by 21%. Growth of equity partners has been relatively modest (only 8%) while that of nonequity partners has been dramatic (45%). It is noteworthy that the highest profit-per-equity-partner (PPP). PPP in the 50 highest profit firms (PPP 1-50) have barely grown their equity ranks and that the PPP in the 101-150 highest profit firms actually shrank theirs. The second 50 highest profit firms (PPP 51-100) stand out as having grown both their equity and nonequity ranks considerably ahead of the other profitability cohorts.

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