Why are more partners moving now?

On the year anniversary of the first lockdown, it feels a very different place to this time last year. With barely an exception, law firms are reporting back better than expected financial results and, in some cases, better results than the previous year, certainly in terms of profitability. These financial results are not limited to the international firms. This is being reported across all practice areas and sectors. Law firms are busy. In turn, partner recruitment is back to robust levels and not a day goes by without another move being announced across the legal press.

So why are partners seemingly moving so much?

• Culture: one of the unintended consequences of home working and the enforced movement of law firms into remote working is a cultural dilution. Partners who were previously embedded with their other partners and teams are now at home servicing their clients and we have heard in many cases this is eroding the feeling of being part of a culture, which in turn eats into the ‘stickiness’ of a partner remaining at a firm. Prior to lockdown, culture was a key reason cited by a partner as to why they would stay at their firm;
  

• Remuneration: With the dilution in culture and coming out of a period of uncertainty, there is much more focus on remuneration and profitability and this is a big challenge to law firms in the future. How do you keep a partner now when another firm can offer better compensation and all that might change is a new laptop from the same home office?
  

• Recruitment process: The last year has seen an easier recruitment process for lateral partner hiring evolve. Technology has meant that it’s easier to say yes to meeting a new potential law firm who are a simply a click away on a laptop than a physical meeting and the travel and time involved;
  

• Location, location, location: it now no longer matters if a partner is based in Bristol or London if they can still work and service clients from home and have flexibility to meet at a London office (for example) when needed. This opens up more opportunities to partners located in different locations. If the commute can be managed, it opens up the range of options for a partner who may be open to do a mix of commuting and home working.

It’s worth remembering too that as well as the impact of lockdown creating new reasons for moving, other pre-lockdown reasons for lockdown have not simply disappeared. Opportunities for progression through the partnership, profit share distribution, a firm’s lack of interest in an area through to needing a new challenge; there are now more reasons to move than ever before.