Making partner in The Am Law 200 is no easy task these days. The hundreds of lawyers who reach that rung tend to share a few key characteristics: They’re driven, they have support at home and work, and they know where they want their careers to go. Those qualities emerged from The American Lawyer’s 2013 New Partner Survey, our third look at how recently promoted partners see themselves and their jobs. Respondents ranked various factors, including how well their firms prepared them to be a partner, how satisfying they find their new role, and how well they’ve done at landing their own clients.
This year’s survey garnered 469 completed responses from attorneys who began working as a partner between 2010 and 2013. One third of that group are litigators; another 15 percent specialize in intellectual property, and more than 5 percent do corporate work, with the rest split among areas that include labor and employment, bankruptcy, M&A, banking and finance, and tax. Of the respondents, 59 percent are considered nonequity or income partners at their firms, with the remainder holding equity status. Two-thirds were men. For both genders, only 8 percent were single. Most believe that they made partner primarily on the strength of their legal work and commitment to their firm, with rainmaking prowess having at least “some importance.”
