Energy Law Attorneys in Austin, Texas I Peissel Law Firm, L.L.P.

9 Essentials to Making Partner

By Charles R. Peissel
Texas Lawyer Magazine

April 25, 2011

It is that time of year when senior associates across the land are staring at spreadsheet reports and pondering the all-consuming question, "Is this the year I make partner?" The holidays are long over, and the first few months of billable hours are on the table. For the senior associate, this is the culmination of years of strenuous effort with a single overriding goal in mind. And yet, how many of these associates started their career with a clear idea of the tasks ahead?

Newly minted lawyers view partnership as a state of being that confers money, power, respect, security and control over one's destiny. Partnership, however, lies far in the future. Whatever thought they give to achieving this treasured status is probably a naive assumption that appropriate reward will follow diligent effort: Bill the required hours, and admission to this exclusive club will be inevitable.

Life is not that simple. Many factors beyond billable hours come into play, and some of these factors are beyond the individual's control. So what does it take to make partner? Below are some of the critical variables gleaned from three decades of observing firms large and small struggle with this issue.

1. Work the hours: It is the most obvious criteria and the easiest to track. More hours are, of course, better. Failure to hit the minimum is usually terminal to dreams of partnership.

Larger firms typically require extremely long hours (2,000 billables every year for seven or eight years) with no excuses accepted. Forget about vacations, and hope that sick days are few. For married lawyers, this can put a bit of a strain on one's home life. Bonuses may not kick in until 2,200 hours.

2. Find the work: This is not discussed nearly enough. Working hard is a given, but a lawyer also must find the work. Practice areas rise and fall. In some years litigation leads the pack. In other years it may be bankruptcy or M&A.

The trick is to pick the long-term winner that puts files on the desk year after year. Scanning the legal press should provide guidance. Whether this intelligence lines up with an attorney's other career goals may be problematic.

3. Learn the craft in depth: The general practitioner is dead. The specialist is the person in demand when problems arise. A priority for any associate should be achieving board certification in his or her chosen field. It may be of some small comfort that headhunters will be more interested if things do not work out at one's current employer.

4. Give the speeches: It is painful but necessary. A great source of pride (not to mention business) for any firm is having its lawyers speak before large groups. Putting together these speeches and their accompanying papers can be challenging for associates spending every waking hour at the office cranking out billable hours. Only a few hardy souls can handle the load.

5. Bring in clients: This is a real attention-getter. Nothing warms the cold hearts of senior partners faster than seeing a new client walk in the front door. Immediate rewards often flow to any associate who can make this happen. Even billable hours tend to fade to the background compared to this achievement.

The mysteries of how a lowly associate can grab clients are beyond the scope of this piece, but critical elements are intense networking, volunteering, and socializing inside and outside the firm.

6. Become indispensable to the institutional client: There is no need to leave the office. Most firms have clients that are critically important to their futures. Servicing those clients and doing outstanding work get noticed.

Be aware that the billing attorneys for those clients will try to control all access to the client. An associate who hopes to make partner must become the billing attorney's new best friend (hopefully, without being terribly obvious). Making the billing attorney look good and building a successful, supportive relationship will pay off in the long run.

7. Find a mentor: Powerful friends can open all doors. The old adage, "It's not what you know, but who you know," certainly comes into play. Having a connection of some sort -- family, house of worship, country club, civic organization, prep school, college, law school, AA meetings, etc. -- with a senior partner can catapult an associate to the head of the queue.

8. Minimize mistakes: One can be too many. The firm will expect associates to live up to their fabulous resumes. No one expects perfection, but a major stumble can eliminate a would-be partner from the competition.

Associates must pay attention to the details of their practices. They should be alert to situations that expose them to extraordinary legal risk, and try to bring in others to share that risk. Going for the big win alone could cost an associate the game. Above all, associates must not get sued.

9. Be eligible for partnership in a year when the economy is improving: Timing is everything but, tragically, is probably beyond an associate's control. Every would-be partner is seeking a piece of a pie that, hopefully, is growing in size. If such is the case, entry into the clique should not negatively impact its existing members.

The opposite is true when the economy is headed south. Unless an associate brings new business to the table or, alternatively, his or her departure would cause a significant drop in business, chances of a warm welcome into the partnership drop considerably. As one managing partner expressed it to me: "You are going to have to come and take it away from me" -- the "it" being that piece of the pie sought.

Such is the struggle. At the end of the day, an associate may be one of the talented few who reaches the summit. Is the climb worth the effort and the sacrifice? The answer is a subjective one. Be cautioned. Money, power, respect, security and control over one's destiny can be quite illusory -- after all, those who make it into the clique now have partners.

Charles R. Peissel of Austin is a partner in the Peissel Law Firm, which also has an office in Houston. He has been practicing law since 1977 and has been a partner in small, medium and large firms.

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