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Law Firms Are Rethinking Comp Systems to Recruit and Retain High Performers

By Justin Henry
March 01, 2024

From Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison moving to a closed compensation system to Cravath, Swaine & Moore abandoning a pure lockstep model and hiring nonequity partners, elite law firms are implementing a variety of changes to their pay systems.

No matter the approach, firms appear to have a common goal in mind when making such changes: widening the ratio in pay for the highest and lowest-paid partners in order to better recruit and retain high performers. In the last 20 years, the partner pay ratio has grown from 3:1 to at least 8:1 at firms that have shown the most success, said management consultant Kent Zimmermann, a partner at Zeughauser Group.

"When you look at the firms that have broken through in most competitive practices and cities, like M&A and private equity in New York, the competitors that are breaking through and over time becoming greater market leaders in those competitive areas tend to have rising ratios," Zimmermann said.

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