Workshop: Modernizing Partner Compensation

Despite tremendous changes in the last ten years across the legal marketplace, changes that accelerated and expanded during the global pandemic, most law firm partner compensation plans haven’t been updated in a generation. However, law firm leaders who have modernized partner compensation plans stand to benefit financially, culturally, and competitively.

In this interactive and collaborative workshop, we will review the primary changes taking place in partner compensation design and discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. Attendees will have the opportunity to work with these concepts by collaborating in small groups on a series of case studies.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Review the elements of partner compensation that are undergoing the most change, such as the addition of profitability metrics, origination sharing, performance management, and fiscal hygiene

• Understand the critical links between partner compensation and profitability, pricing, succession planning, recruiting, and associate elevation

• Apply these concepts to case studies derived from actual compensation plans in order to illustrate the short-term and long-term impacts

Registered attendees will have an opportunity to shape the discussion by participating in a pre-workshop survey to identify their firm’s greatest compensation challenges or opportunities.