Leaders of Paul Weiss, McDermott and Weil explain their firm’s path to partnership approach—and the benefits from it.
The path from first-year associate to equity partner in a large law firm can range from roughly seven years to almost double that, depending on the firm.
And as more law firms create and expand their nonequity tiers, industry observers and even some recent litigation point to an even longer path in the legal industry lately to reach a firm’s brass ring. But leaders of several firms with nonequity tiers — even newer ones — say in interviews that the two-tier structure hasn’t lengthened the path to equity, and some say the “income partner” path is a better springboard to be a successful equity partner.
