Big Law RTO Hits Headwinds with Equity Partners - And Other Resentments, Including for Non-equity Partners

 More and more we're learning that even moving on up to equity partner doesn't bring employment security - de-equitization is standard - or even much power over decision-making about the terms and conditions of working. 

The most recent controversy about the latter - control over how you work - is the mandate for five days back in the office. That edict has gone out by Sullivan & Cromwell. Of course, the fear in a sector still dominated by lockstep is that rigid RTO will catch on. HiHo HiHo, off to the office we go. Pay the big nut for commuting, meals out and additional dependent care. 

Well, it's the equity partners who could derail such a shift back to the pre-COVID always-there facetime curse. BTI Consulting found that 50.2 percent of partners essentially are saying: Hell no. They like remote. The key reasons include:

Being more productive

Easier to do team thinking when remote using text and Zoom.

Feeling resentment that they perceive themselves as being treated as children.

In talking with partners other reasons which have come up are:

Dread of heading back to the commute. (Remember the "lawyers car" on Metro North from Greenwich, Connecticut to midtown Manhattan.)

Not only added arrangements for dependent care but the angst that they will fall through.

Having to put up with those in the office. 

Meanwhile law firms might be wise to keep equity partners out of the office where tensions can spill over. 

The chief beef is the spread about what some partners - stars - are making and others aren't. Law firms such as Jones Day and Paul Weiss have black boxes which they intend to prevent that. Compensation is not transparent. 

But lawyers tell me they dig around for details of compensation through their networks. So, it's probably not effective.

That black box management device could be blown up when the paid parental leave for fathers lawsuit "Savignac, et al. v Jones Day" goes to trial in November 2025. Lots about Jones Day's personnel policies will be on trial. The gender lawsuit about alleged discrimination "Tolton, et al. v Jones Day" was supposed to do that but both parties agreed to let the lawsuit go. 

Another issue picking up a resentment head of steam is how the income partner tier - non-equity - is structured. Many who have achieved that have come to perceive it as merely a tactic to juice Profits Per Equity Partners. If that metric isn't up to the star partners' expectations they will agree to be poached. 

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