Why are most big law firms not making associates non equity “partner” earlier (like Kirkland does). The early title change seems like a no brainer to me (better for client development, client management, and employee loyalty). What am I missing?

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I think the title “partner” holds no water when it’s clear that its “non-equity.” Very Regional Manager/Assistant to the Regional Manager vibes.

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How about assistant to the assistant to the regional manager? :)

That being a partner involves actually being involved in the partnership, having advanced expertise that is earned based on merit (theoretically, obviously there is all sorts of bias/bigotry that gets in the way of this working out as it should), having significant expertise, AND malpractice insurance requires all associate work to be overseen by a partner. If you had 6th year associates running everything, I guarantee there would be some huge malpractice claims that aren’t covered by insurance. Also, it can be hard to lateral once you’re a partner so these Kirkland 6th/7th years may struggle to lateral since they don’t have a book of business.

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Also the title of "non equity partner" is beneficial on resume mostly but the economics works out worse for the nep's themselves. I've heard many many cases where take home pay is less than senior associates due to black box comp and no employer contributions to insurance

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Kirkland has turned making partner into a participation trophy and cheapened the title. Making partner is actually supposed to mean something (i.e., you’ve reached a certain level of expertise, key piece to a client relationship, etc.). In my opinion, the best way to handle a non-equity tier is to only promote those who are on their way to making equity. That also achieves the objectives you mention, but with the title still holding value.

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NEP is just glorified senior associate and everybody knows it. It’s silly.

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Thanks all, some decent points.

Fair enough if firms actually want to retain seniors. But do they (and the paying clients) want to keep a large contingent of their most expensive workers who don’t have their own books of business?

Many, many equity partners don’t have meaningful books.

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