The City firm has elected four new partners to its ranks from the beginning of the next financial year and all four will join as fixed-share partners, rather than salaried.
The new partners — Colin Gibson (litigation), Laurence Lumb (corporate), Nick Pimlott (EU and competition) and Denise Sexton (real estate) — will take the firm to 95 partners. Field Fisher’s three tiers of partnership now consist of fixed-share partner, junior partner and equity partner. Junior partners will have a slightly larger equity stake than fixed-share partners.
Partners will normally stay at each level for two to three years. Existing salaried partners will have the choice of staying in their current position or switching to fixed-share.
The introduction of the new rank follows consultations within the partnership and will come into effect at the top 50
The change is part of a programme of reforms. Later this year the firm will introduce its first-ever associate bonus scheme, while this month it officially rolled out its ‘assistants’ assistance’ scheme.
The scheme is intended to give associates a link to management through representatives from each practice group. Issues that are likely to be discussed include work-life balance issues, flexible working and job titles.
Field Fisher managing partner Moira Gilmour told Legal Week: “We are still fine-tuning the [associate] bonus. Because we have come to it later than other firms we want to learn by their mistakes.”
