SAN FRANCISCO—Law firm partnerships just keep getting more complicated. There are equity partners, non-equity partners, and then for those such as former Heller Ehrman partner K. William Neuman there’s something in-between.

Upon Heller’s dissolution in 2008, Neuman was being paid a salary rather than out of the firm’s profits, but he maintained voting rights in firm matters under a employment agreement hastily drafted in the firm’s waning days. Making matters even more complicated, Heller never paid back Neuman’s capital contribution.