Lovells is pushing ahead with plans to make its salaried partners members of its limited liability partnership (LLP) and give them voting rights.
The firm is set to send a consultation paper to partners at the end of this week detailing new proposals that are likely to usher in a new regime at the beginning of the financial year.
The proposals detail which matters will be opened up to salaried partners for voting and those expected to remain solely in the remit of those in the equity.
More than 20 different voting areas have been highlighted. These include issues such as approving accounts, opening new offices, voting in new salaried and equity partner appointments as well as approving senior internal appointments within the firm.
Issues expected to stay out of bounds for salaried members include voting on the appointment of new equity partners. Salaried members are likely to be able to approve, but not stand for, certain senior positions within Lovells.
Partners are expected to respond to the consultation by 15 February, with a view to getting a final proposal out in March or April to be voted on by 1 May.
The plans, overseen by senior partner John Young, were discussed at the firm’s partnership council in November and have since been in the hands of a committee including general counsel Michael Seymour, partnership secretary Nancy Dobson and German corporate partner Michael Leistikow.
Young told Legal Week: “The key is that they should become members of the LLP and that they should have a vote. It is a very desirable modernisation of our partnership deed, reflecting the importance of our non-equity partners.”
Lovells has more than 300 partners, of whom around a third are salaried. Partners at the
In an unrelated move, the firm has also decided against bringing some new partner candidates in overseas offices into the equity on reduced points. Young’s review of the lockstep last year increased the entry point for new partners from 24 points to 30. However, the firm had been consulting on proposals to bring some partners in below this rate.
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