Do you think partners in law firms have too much power and autonomy? eg. the power to refuse leave, to do your annual appraisal, to make you work while on leave, to overwork people, to manage the team on their on terms etc. Is this power bad or good for the firm and the team overall?

Related question - Do you think the HR in law firms are just there for show since the partners have a lot of power and autonomy?

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HR is just there for the paper trail.

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💯

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Depends on the partner. If the partner is reasonable then obviously it’s good that they have autonomy. If not, then obviously not.

HR has no power. Rainmaker partners could probably get any staff member fired if they wanted to.

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Why wouldnt the partial owner of a business have that kind of power within the context of their own business. I’m starting to side with the boomers when I read these questions.

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I don’t think it’s that absurd a question; in most companies with billions of revenue ownership and management are separate (if Kirkland keeps growing as it has, it will be F500 soon enough). And some firms have tried to make steps in that direction, albeit usually with only partial success.

Of course, the response to that argument is that firms aren’t really cohesive business entities, but rather collections of solos and small firms loosely affiliated under one banner. And when you shift from companies to billions of revenue to low seven and eight digits, owner-managers are much more common.

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Nobody has the power to “make you work while on leave”

likefunny

And if you are, you don’t want to work there and can exercise the power you have in the open market

They basically own the shop so why wouldn’t they…….

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HR is there to protect the partners with the highest books of business and making sure the firm doesn’t not lose that business.

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Exactly

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I’m (obviously) a partner so I have a different perspective. First, yes, partners do have a bunch of power, but not all partners do. While it is firm dependent, I think generally speaking a number of partners don’t have the unilateral power to fire, change compensation, or do any number of management things without sign off from the other powers that be. We do have some power over an associates work, but only to the extent that individual wants to keep working at that firm. There are only two types of lawyers in private practice—those with business and those who work for lawyers with business. If your the latter, you need to work to become the former, deal with what you got, or leave. To be clear, however, associates have a ton of power too. How can I build a multi-million book without anyone to do the work? Only so much time in day, so the workers have plenty of power too.

On the HR point, I feel what everyone is saying but consider the fact that the staff paychecks are directly tied to the success of those they are tasked with “overseeing” or reprimanding. Not saying that gives anyone an excuse to be bad to people, but that is the reality.

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I mean what even is this question. “Do you think owners of businesses have too much power over how they run their business?” Is there some mystery job out there where employees can just take leave without running it by anyone and do not have any reviews or any managers to report to? I find I have considerably more autonomy as an attorney (right from when I was 24) than most other professions. As long as I get my work done, no one has ever said no to me for vacations, forced FaceTime in the office etc. I regularly came in at 11 am as a junior and never got scolded because I didn’t let it affect response times to partners/clients. No one can force you to overwork or work on leave, that’s a decision you make because you think it’s better for your career than the alternative. If you think elsewhere is better than go elsewhere. We are in the hottest lateral market ever. The insistence of some folks on this app that we are being held in virtual slavery and are completely helpless is baffling to me. You’re an adult, take some ownership of your life decisions (which includes the decisions to go to law school and/or put yourself into debt to do so and/or work in biglaw).

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Yes. It’s the nature of a partnership after all.

I agree that there are partners and there are partners, but generally speaking the larger the firm the less power any one particular partner has to just unilaterally do whatever he or she wants. I’ve been at a v10 my entire career and I’ve seen plenty of things some of the largest rainmakers in the firm wanted done that management (executive partner or GC) shut down. The larger firms are run like corporations. Can a rainmaker get a single associate fired? Sure. But there will be lots of questions asked as to why and the associate generally won’t be fired just because the rainmaker doesn’t like him or her.

…it’s their company isn’t it? It makes sense although not ideal.

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