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Okay, embarrassingly dumb question (hence anon). In biglaw, who exactly are special counsel, or even "of counsel?" I know some are the semi-retired partners who literally counsel the firm in areas they have expertise in. Are the other "special counsel" the ones who were on the non-partner associate track, or am I completely confusing myself.

Anonymous User wrote:Okay, embarrassingly dumb question (hence anon). In biglaw, who exactly are special counsel, or even "of counsel?" I know some are the semi-retired partners who literally counsel the firm in areas they have expertise in. Are the other "special counsel" the ones who were on the non-partner associate track, or am I completely confusing myself.

No. Most of them were on the partner track and didn't make partner. But they have a valued expertise.

Titles/roles vary firm to firm. In addition to the two scenarios you suggested and the one suggested by Npret, I've also seen more senior attorneys brought in as counsel as a trial run for partnership.

v5junior wrote:Titles/roles vary firm to firm. In addition to the two scenarios you suggested and the one suggested by Npret, I've also seen more senior attorneys brought in as counsel as a trial run for partnership.

Thanks. This makes sense. I'm guessing salaries vary widely for these positions as well depending on the nature of the scenario

Yup

Generally-speaking they're a step up from associates and a step below partners. What it means for someone can depend more on the person than the role itself. For some it's a trial run for partner (e.g., for internal associates, for laterals who were partners at other firms or were about to be partner), for some it's because they weren't going to get partner but the firm wanted to retain them, for some it's because the person used to be a partner but wasn't bringing in enough money to stay partner, and for some it's because the person was a partner and was going to retire, and the firm wants to keep them around by giving them a smaller leadership role.

never heard of special counsel, but of coursel varies wildly. at my firm Of counsel is basically anyone that isn't a home-grown partnership track atty. this includes some very young, maybe 3-4 yrs experience, attorneys that work part-time on an hourly basis