An Above the Law Report out today says partners at one Big Law firm made $8.4MM each.
They paid themselves $8.4MM each.
With their client’s money.
Anyone else have a problem with that?
I get it, I deliver huge value and great results. I save my clients billions a year. But I also try to put them first in terms of charging a reasonable fee for my services and netting a well-above-average-but-still-reasonable living.
Greed sickens me. Its one of the reasons I left big law.
Not saying that my former firm was greedy. They’re actually much better than most. But when you think about how staff and associates are treated in Big Law–especially during the pandemic when profits for equity partners went through the roof while the lowest paid folks were forced to take salary cuts, ended up furloughed or got kicked to the curb–its no good. Just no good.
If you ever wonder why your Big Law bill is so BIG, the average big law partner made $1,719,676 last year.
Mystery solved.
There’s a reason lawyers are so disdained. Blood suckers and the like.
Mercifully, its a dying model. The behemoths have peaked. Associates are jumping ship in droves. And the firms have been forced to make dozens of no-book partners just to try to retain talent. But these firms are Dinosaurs. Zombie companies that won’t survive the next recession.
The Troutman Firm–and firms like it (i.e. built around true expertise and value)–are the future. Ironically, they’re also the past. The practice of law began as a stately profession. One in which practitioners shared generously with one another and scrupulously observed their client’s best interest in every aspect of their relationship.
Its a tradition I try to honor daily.
Help me do the same, if you wouldn’t mind. Pull your work from the big firms. Tell your friends there that they can make it on their own. And support them when they do leave–and they will if you encourage it. All good lawyers are noble women and men deep down. They want to do the right thing. And they’ll do it if they know you’ll support them.
Let’s end the era of corporate greed in law. Its gross.
Have a good night TCPAWorld.
Here’s an article I can get behind!
The number of “big law” attorneys I’ve run into who are mediocre (at best) at the profession is astonishing. I’ve noticed a big uptick in regional, mid-law firms representing F50 companies I litigate with. It’s a trend in the right direction.