“Eat what you kill means you have no leeway to stop killing—no matter how bad you feel,” one lawyer told the American Lawyer.
Partners can make or break the professional lives of the numerous people working below them, a fact we’ve learned over years of surveying tens of thousands of associates, counsels, non-equity partners and support staff. But at present, partners’ effectiveness as managers who prioritize the wellbeing of their reports doesn’t factor into their compensation package.
While some firms factor firm stewardship into partner compensation in the form of implementing team-based compensation systems or sticking with lockstep models, many attorneys suspect that the eat-what-you-kill model that permeates Big Law is detrimental to the well-being of the people working below equity partners.
