When was the last time you looked at what other firms are offering their partners?

If you’re doing fine at your firm, it might have been a while. Maybe you’ve been there eight years, made equity partner three years ago, and the compensation is solid. You have some marketing support, a few associates when you need them, and the work is coming in. Or maybe you made a move recently and assumed you did your homework, but you only looked at the firms that were actively recruiting you.

But if you’ve got a little voice at the back of your head wondering what else might be out there, you might be surprised to find out what’s available out there.

Marketing and business development support

Some firms have realized that their partners cannot handle both billable work and all the business development, so they’re building teams to handle the execution or offer support. Others haven’t. And that divide is creating two very different experiences for partners.

According to Calibrate Strategies’ 2022 department sizing study, there are approximately 7,500 marketing and business development professionals across the Am Law 200. And Calibrate’s 2024 marketing and business development survey found that 60% of firms predicted growth in their marketing and business development headcount over the next year

But that support isn’t distributed equally. Firms with over $1 billion in revenue deploy marketing teams averaging 85 full-time employees, while firms in the $500 million to $1 billion range average just 33.

BTI Consulting Group’s 2025 benchmarking report found that Am Law 30 firms are leading this trend, increasing their marketing staff per attorney at the fastest rate—while the rest of the Am Law 200 are spending proportionally less than they did pre-pandemic. The budget shift is telling too: 57% of marketing dollars now go to client development, up from 34% before COVID.

Where does your firm stand?

Ask yourself:

How many hours a week are you spending on business development tasks instead of billable work or strategic client conversations?
Have you let relationships go cold because you didn’t have time to stay in touch?
Are you turning down speaking opportunities or media requests because you can’t add one more thing to your plate?
When was the last time you had a thoughtful conversation with someone at your firm about your practice development strategy?
Do you have visibility into which of your business development activities are bringing in work and which aren’t?

If these questions hit a nerve, you’re working harder than partners at firms that have invested in support. That gap affects your ability to scale your practice.

Associate leverage that’s up to the task of growth

You can’t grow a practice when you’re buried in document review, due diligence checklists, drafting discovery responses, or any of the other work associates could be handling.

Some firms are solving this by hiring more robust teams. NLJ 500 firms added 5.5% more attorneys in 2024, the largest jump of the decade, with associate headcount up 6%. Lateral associate hiring jumped 24.9%, with large firms seeing 41.4% increases.

Where does your firm stand?

Ask yourself:

How much of your week is spent on work that an associate could handle?
Are you regularly working nights or weekends on tasks that don’t require partner-level judgment?
How many associates have left your team in the past two years?
When you bring in new work, do you have associates available to staff it, or do you have to do most of it yourself?
Are you spending more time training new associates than working with experienced ones who know your practice?

If you’re doing associate-level work because you don’t have enough people or they keep leaving, you’re not growing. You’re just billing hours.

Compensation that reflects your contributions

Your compensation might feel fine. It might even be good. But how does it stack up when you look outside your firm?

Partner compensation has climbed dramatically in the last several years. Average partner compensation hit $1.4 million in 2024, up 26% in just two years, and equity partners are averaging $1.9 million. Am Law 100 profits per equity partner hit $3.15 million.

But there’s a divide here: How firms determine compensation strongly influences how partners feel about that compensation. Eighty percent of partners in transparent compensation systems reported satisfaction with their pay, compared to only 63% in closed systems.

Where does your firm stand?

Ask yourself:

Do you know how your compensation gets determined, or are you guessing?
Does your firm recognize contributions beyond your individual billables and originations (and are you financially incentivized for those originations)?
When you bring another lawyer or practice group from your firm into a client relationship, do you get credit for that?
Are partners with similar books and contributions paid similarly, or does it feel arbitrary?
Have you had a conversation with firm leadership about your compensation in the past year?

If you’re unsure how the system works or whether your full contributions are being counted, you’re likely leaving money on the table.

Firms investing in cross-selling growth

You could be sending work to other firms more often than you realize. And when you do, you could be missing an opportunity to strengthen that client relationship or even expand your business.

But whether you can keep that work depends on whether your firm is investing in the capabilities and locations your clients need. Some firms are opening offices, adding practice groups, and developing platforms that enable partners to serve clients comprehensively. Others are standing still while their partners’ clients outgrow what the firm can offer.

Some recent examples of this include:

Sheppard Mullin added a 21-lawyer IP litigation group from Ropes & Gray. Polsinelli hired 47 lawyers from Holland & Knight for executive compensation and employee benefits work that feeds directly into their healthcare and life sciences practices. Orrick brought in 37 lawyers from Cadwalader in collateralized loan obligations and asset-backed lending, and opened a Charlotte office in the process. Partners are moving to firms with platforms that let them cross-sell instead of referring out.

The firms making these investments aren’t just adding headcount. They’re buying their partners the ability to say yes instead of having to refer them elsewhere.

Where does your firm stand?

Ask yourself:

How often are you sending clients to other firms because yours doesn’t have the right office location or practice capability?
When you refer work out, are you strengthening your relationship with the client or watching someone else become their primary counsel?
Is your firm opening offices or adding practice groups in markets where your clients are growing?
Are you losing opportunities because competitors can offer clients more comprehensive service?
Has your firm opened any new offices or added any practice groups in the past two years, or are you working with the same platform you had five years ago?

If you’re constantly referring work elsewhere, you’re building someone else’s practice instead of your own.

Work how you work best

Some firms have figured out that partners don’t all build practices in the same way. If you’re a rainmaker who wins work with flat fees instead of hourly billing, or you need flexibility to work when your clients need you rather than keeping banker’s hours, those differences shouldn’t count against you.

A recent survey by Best Law Firms found that 72% of U.S. law firms offer some kind of alternative fee arrangements (AFAs). The number rises to 90% among firms with more than 50 lawyers. Yet not all firms use them equally; the way they are used varies considerably by firm size and type.

Firms with flexible billing models allow you to price work the way your clients prefer—fixed fees, capped fees, or value-based arrangements. The same philosophy applies to compensation at firms that understand partners build practices in different ways. If you’re bringing in $3 million in business, they don’t care whether you billed 1,800 hours or 1,200 to get there.

That kind of flexibility makes sense when it’s about results. But not all flexibility works in this way. Over half of law firms now require attorneys in the office at least three days a week, and some firms are pushing for four. The pitch is always the same: We need everyone here for collaboration, mentoring, and culture.

The problem? Partners aren’t showing up. Associates arrive at empty offices, only to find that the senior lawyers who are supposed to be mentoring them are working from home. Research shows RTO mandates lead to higher turnover, especially among women and high performers—the people firms can’t afford to lose. When the rules apply differently depending on your title, your team notices.

Where does your firm stand?

Ask yourself:

Does your firm allow you to structure billing in a way that suits your practice’s needs, or are you limited to one approach, regardless of what works best for your clients?
Does your compensation system reward you for bringing in business however it comes, or does it penalize you for not hitting billable hour targets?
If your firm requires office attendance, are partners actually there, or are associates showing up to mentor themselves?
Are you losing good associates because leadership isn’t following the same rules they’re enforcing?

If your firm talks about flexibility but only applies it selectively, you’re working somewhere that doesn’t trust partners to run their own practices.

What this means for you

Leading firms are spending millions on marketing support. They’re hiring associates at record rates. They’re opening new offices to capture referral work. They’re paying more and being transparent about how they determine compensation. They’re giving partners flexibility in how they practice.

The question is whether you’re at a firm making these investments or one that’s standing still while everything else moves forward. And if you’re not getting these resources, what’s it costing you in terms of the practice you could be building?

If you’re wondering whether a lateral move makes sense for you, or if you’re curious about what other firms are offering partners with your book of business, let’s talk. In less than half an hour, I can help you understand what’s available in the market and whether the support gaps you’re experiencing are typical—or whether there’s a better fit out there for you.