{"id":154272,"date":"2026-06-10T14:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/10\/biglaws-rising-tide-isnt-lifting-every-partners-boat-anymore\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T14:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:57:26","slug":"biglaws-rising-tide-isnt-lifting-every-partners-boat-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/10\/biglaws-rising-tide-isnt-lifting-every-partners-boat-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw\u2019s \u2018Rising Tide\u2019 Isn\u2019t Lifting Every Partner\u2019s Boat Anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The last decade has been so strong in terms of firm performance that the rising tide was lifting all boats, and some of those boats were rising too much. [Having a portion of compensation fixed] helps to push more money at the top to the people who are really driving the success of the firm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0Lisa Smith, a law firm consultant at Fairfax Associates, in comments given to Bloomberg Law<\/a>, concerning why some Biglaw firms have embraced nonequity partnership structures. By creating a tier for senior associates and counsel to receive partner titles without diluting equity, firms can reserve a larger share of profits for their highest-performing equity partners.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Biglaw\u2019s \u2018Rising Tide\u2019 Isn\u2019t Lifting Every Partner\u2019s Boat Anymore<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The last decade has been so strong in terms of firm performance that the rising tide was lifting all boats, and some of those boats were rising too much. [Having a portion of compensation fixed] helps to push more money at the top to the people who are really driving the success of the firm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0Lisa Smith, a law firm consultant at Fairfax Associates, in comments given to Bloomberg Law<\/a>, concerning why some Biglaw firms have embraced nonequity partnership structures. By creating a tier for senior associates and counsel to receive partner titles without diluting equity, firms can reserve a larger share of profits for their highest-performing equity partners.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day. The last decade has been so strong in terms of firm performance that the rising tide was lifting all boats, and some of those boats were rising too much. [Having a portion of compensation fixed] helps to push more money at the top to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":154273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Staci-Zaretsky-rXq43M.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}