The Brief:
Clifford Chance has formalised its local partner role, appointing seven lawyers in its inaugural round.
The move reflects a sweeping structural shift, with more than 90% of the AmLaw 100 now running some form of non-equity partnership as firms keep equity profits tightly concentrated.
Big Law has been quietly rewriting the rules of partnership. Clifford Chance is the latest to lean in.
The local partner
The Magic Circle firm has formalised its local partner role, announcing seven promotions in its first dedicated round for the title. The inaugural cohort spans São Paulo, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Singapore and New York.
The local partner title is salaried and sits outside CC's global partnership structure, which already has equity and non-equity tiers. It is also a separate track from the firm’s counsel rank. For some, it will be a stepping stone to the global partnership. For others, it may be a final destination.
The role is not new. It existed informally at CC for years, assigned to individuals on an ad hoc basis. Now, it’s formalised into an annual round, giving the title a clearer place in the firm’s career path.
Global managing partner Charles Adams said the role recognises “the different ways people contribute and succeed at Clifford Chance”, while creating additional growth opportunities for lawyers across the firm.
The bigger picture
CC is not moving alone.
Freshfields added a non-equity tier in February. Sullivan & Cromwell followed in January. Debevoise and Skadden both added the rank last year. More than 90% of the AmLaw 100 now run some form of non-equity partnership.
The logic driving it all is the same.
Promoting lawyers to partner title without granting equity keeps billing rates high and career paths open without touching the profit pool reserved for equity holders. At the top of the market, that pool is increasingly concentrated.
Kirkland & Ellis reported average profits per equity partner of US$9.3m last year, with the highest-paid partners across Big Law clearing north of US$40m. At Kirkland, salaried partners take home around US$750,000. Protecting partner profits means keeping the equity circle tight.
Not everyone is convinced.
Critics argue the non-equity model hollows out what partnership actually means, replacing shared ownership with a title and a salary.
For A&O Shearman, the answer was to go the other way. The firm phased out the non-equity tier that legacy Shearman & Sterling had introduced, returning to an all-equity model on the basis that it better incentivises firmwide collaboration. Slaughter and May has resisted the non-equity tier altogether, sticking with a tightly managed all-equity lockstep where fewer than 10% of trainees ever make partner.
Those holdouts are shrinking in number. In Big Law, salaried partnership has quietly become the new normal.
Source: Clifford Chance