Not Many Interested in Making Partner

The culture of the big firm is changing. No longer do attorneys go in with goals of making partner. It is getting more common for people to see their time in the big firms as temporary and a springboard to a more life-friendly career. In the article, Midlevel Survey Shows Associates Eyeing the Door, this seemed right on with the way we see things in my home:

...A close parsing of the numbers reveals that although most associates think they could make partner, they're not sure they want to. For one thing, they see some junior partners working even more ferocious hours than their own. "There have been times when I have been watching a movie late at night that I've gotten an e-mail from a partner," says a Latham and Watkins third-year who, like the other respondents quoted here, spoke on a confidential basis. Adds a Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner midlevel: "When you see how many hours [junior partners] put in, you realize there really is no end to it."

Associates also have picked up on the fact that partners now are expected to be more than just good lawyers; they're also expected to be business builders, who had better keep pushing if they want to retain their partnership status. "Partnership is no longer the lifetime guarantee that maybe it once was," says one Dechert associate, who notes that de-equitizations and layoffs that have become part and parcel of the business of law. Says one Arnold & Porter third-year: "This is not the sort of place where once you become a partner you sit back and ride the gravy train." Indeed, according to associates contacted for this story, that sort of place is hard (or even impossible) to find anywhere in The Am Law 200 nowadays...