Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain …
Story 1: I was treated to lunch recently by a 4th-year associate at a large corporate law firm.
At most firms, the transition to partnership requires that an attorney "buy into" the organization. The amount varies considerably, but it is often more than a year's salary. And partners almost always pay for their benefits out of pocket. And partners' draws are often wildly inconsistent from month to month. The eventual financial rewards of partnership can be huge, but the first couple years aren't easy. <br/>And what do law firms do to prepare associates for partnership? If the three stories above are any indication, partners terrify associates, lead them to believe that marketing is a sign of corporate weakness and fail to educate them on the basics of firm finance. All that in preparation for the day when they'll be asked to "buy into" the partnership. If you're asking somebody to buy something, they're a customer. And firms should treat associates like customers from the day they begin interviewing until the day they make partner.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain …
Story 1: I was treated to lunch recently by a 4th-year associate at a large corporate law firm.
ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE SINGLE SOURCE OF OBJECTIVE LEGAL ANALYSIS, PRACTICAL INSIGHTS, AND NEWS IN Marketing the Law Firm
Already have an account? Sign In Now
For enterprise-wide or corporate access, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or call 1-877-256-2473.
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2026 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which works under the umbrella of the Librarian of Congress, sets statutory-license royalty terms and rates. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently issued two notable decisions about the CRB.
As quantum machines become more powerful, today’s uncrackable encryption schemes may become trivial to break. Opinions vary as to how soon that moment, so-called “Q Day,” will arrive, but the threat is real.
How do you communicate when you know the harm before you know its cause? For law firms, it comes up both when advising a client and when explaining an incident of their own.
The gap between what a firm bills and what it collects is not a collections failure. It is a design flaw in how the whole revenue cycle is wired, and clients armed with AI are now exploiting it faster than firms can respond.