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Am Law 200

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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Elastic Tournament: The Second Transformation Of The Big Law Firm, William D. Henderson, Marc Galanter Jan 2008

The Elastic Tournament: The Second Transformation Of The Big Law Firm, William D. Henderson, Marc Galanter

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In 1991, Galanter and Palay published 'Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm', which documented the regular and relentless growth of large U.S. law firms. The book advanced several structural and historical factors to explain these patterns, centering on the adoption of the promotion-to-partnership tournament. Systemic changes in the marketplace for corporate legal services in the intervening years suggest the need for an updated account of the modern large law firm. Using 'Tournament of Lawyers' as a starting point, we propose to fill this void in the literature. Marching through a wide array of empirical evidence covering …


Young Associates In Trouble, William D. Henderson, David T. Zaring Jan 2007

Young Associates In Trouble, William D. Henderson, David T. Zaring

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the Shadow of the Law. By Kermit Roosevelt. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2005. Pp. 346. $24.

Utterly Monkey: A Novel. By Nick Laird. London & New York: Harper Perennial. 2005. Pp. 344. $13.95.

Two recent novels portray the substantively unhappy and morally unfulfilling lives of young associates who work long hours in large, elite law firms. As it turns out, their search for love, happiness, and moral purpose is largely in vain. In the rarefied atmosphere of both fictitious firms, the best and the brightest while away their best years doing document reviews, drafting due diligence memoranda …


An Empirical Study Of Single-Tier Versus Two-Tier Partnerships In The Am Law 200, William D. Henderson Jan 2006

An Empirical Study Of Single-Tier Versus Two-Tier Partnerships In The Am Law 200, William D. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

During the last decade, many of the nation's largest law firms have converted from single-tier to two-tier (or multi-tier) partnerships. A two-tier firm contains separate tracks for equity and nonequity partner. The equity tier typically controls the firm and enjoys a larger per capita share of the firm's profits. At present, two-tier partnerships make up 80 percent of Am Law 200. The conventional explanation for the growth of the two-tier system (or, conversely, the abandonment of the single-tier) is that it produces higher profits per equity partner (PPP), thus solidifying the prestige of the firm and improving its ability to …