Law Firms
King & Spalding Tops List of Partner Promotion Percentages
Posted Feb 12, 2008, 06:09 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The number of associates and counsel promoted to partnerships at the nation’s largest law firms increased by 5.2 percent this year, but the hike didn’t keep up with the 6.6 percent increase in law firm growth.
As a result, fewer people were promoted in relative terms, the National Law Journal reports. The legal newspaper compiled the partnership figures from the nation’s 25 largest law firms. It found that 12 of the law firms promoted more lawyers to partner and eight promoted fewer lawyers.
King & Spalding led the list of law firms with the largest percentage increases in partner promotions, with a 66.7 percent increase. The firm promoted 20 lawyers to partner at the same time its lawyer numbers declined from 825 to 814.
King & Spalding was followed by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; Reed Smith; Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis; and O'Melveny & Myers.
The law firms with the largest percentage declines in partnership promotions were Holland & Knight; Baker & McKenzie's North American office; Dechert; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and Hogan & Hartson.
William Henderson, a professor at Indiana University School of Law, told the legal publication that law firms are promoting more lawyers to nonequity rather than equity partnerships, but they don’t always disclose that fact.