Path to partnership

Want to be a partner but unsure how to get there? You are not alone. My experience suggests that there are two problems here - and both have been created by lawyers themselves.

First, law students and junior lawyers are selected for their academic abilities only, with the focus of their education and training on legal theory and legal skills. Business development or management aspects of legal practice are not explained and no training is provided. As a result, it sometimes comes as a surprise to many juniors that a law firm operates as a business. But that's the reality, and the first hurdle for any firm is to find a client to advise. Only then can they deliver the advice.

It's indisputable that technical skills are very important, but behaving as if they are the be-all and end-all means many juniors are entirely unprepared for the challenges they will face later in their legal careers. What happens is that lawyers who reach the stage of technical competence in their careers (which on average occurs at about the 5 PQE mark) discover that they must reinvent themselves as salespeople in order to be seen as contenders for partnership. Until this point, nobody had explained to me that an ability to bring clients to the firm was the skill that would ultimately determine whether or not I'd make partner. As a result, most senior associates' business development skills are underdeveloped.

The second problem is that the information on partnership opportunities - and criteria for selection - are often a secret carefully guarded by law firms. Therefore, those with partnership ambitions not only face the difficulty of having to hone dormant business development skills, but they also have to contend with a system that fails to disclose what they need to do to make partner. I hear that in some firms, associates are told that they are not ready yet to start a discussion about partnership prospects - and it remains unsaid when the right time will come.

The topic of partnership is a delicate one in the legal profession, but the current information void surely make things harder for everyone.

Kate Karakuli (name changed) is a senior associate at a top UK firm.