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We just had a 5th year promoted to partner. We have others (+6 years and counting) who have not hit the partner track. On the other hand I know of others who were made partner before their 5th year. That noted, how long did it take you to make partner? Or, how long did it take people you know (or know about) make partner? As unscientific as this is, I am just curious. Details are encouraged,

This is for firms with over 25 attorneys but not more than 500 attorneys.

15 styx wrote:We just had a 5th year promoted to partner. We have others (+6 years and counting) who have not hit the partner track. On the other hand I know of others who were made partner before their 5th year. That noted, how long did it take you to make partner? Or, how long did it take people you know (or know about) make partner? As unscientific as this is, I am just curious. Details are encouraged,

This is for firms with over 25 attorneys but not more than 500 attorneys.

25 to 500 attorneys is an enormous range. Biglaw standard is 8 years. Smaller firms will vary dramatically.

7 full years (plus your stub year) at my biglaw firm.

CSM and DPW are both on 8 year tracks now moved up from 7 a few years ago.

I interviewed at v5s with 10+ associates so I guess some of them get to stick around for awhile..

Early tab is a bit surprising to me. I thought 4-6 years would carry the day with firms with fewer than 500 attorneys.

I actually just wanted this poll to be for less than 100 attorney firms (paralleling my firm) but then I thought it would limit the response. Anyway, hopefully more to come.

It took my mentor 10 years at Biglaw in a secondary market. Thats for Fixed Share Partner. Going to be an additional 4-5 for equity. The earliest he could have made it was year 8 I believe. Although it seems that QOL is better so they don't have the same problems retaining midlevels.

At a firm of about 30 attorneys in two separate cities. It really varies here (and is almost entirely dependent on the business you bring in), but the shortest partner-track here was six years, the longest being 12. So, I voted nine.

Going back a few months to a discussion with two seasoned associates at a V10 (or so). They claimed that the Partner track for BL might take twice as long but the outcome is an annual income of a million plus. Successful run-of-the-mill Boutiques are likely to be 4-5 years but the pay is often limited to 400-500k. If true, that works for me.

The partner I mainly work for made it in 6 years. So I posted 6.

Given that I thought the partner track opened up in 4-5 years, it’s a bit disappointing that 75% have to wait 7+ years. Granted this poll is as unscientific as it gets, nevertheless, it still could be realistic.