About 16 percent of the partners in the nation’s top 200–grossing law firms are 60 years old or older. And more than half of them are at least 65. Collectively they are at or nearing retirement. For Big Law, they are the leading edge of the baby boom generation that has transformed or at least swollen virtually every institution they’ve encountered since arriving on the scene in the heady years that followed the end of World War II.
But even as the boomer lawyers ponder their departures—or seek waivers to stay on just a little bit longer—the center of gravity in the Am Law partnerships has already shifted. The younger partner groups are notably larger. Those in their fifties account for 28 percent of all Am Law 200 partners. Partners in their forties represent 36 percent of all Am Law 200 partners.
