What is considered a good book of business? Forum

[HereAndThere]

I realize that this is very region/firm/group dependent, but if anyone could chip in with relevant information it would be appreciated.

For example "In (Market) $$$ per year would be impressive for a mid/senior/junior partner and a partner bringing in $$$ a year is considered a 'rainmaker' and only having $$$ would keep you in service partner territory."

Thanks

[FND]

that's not an easy question, because there are so many variables.

What I can tell you is that I know for a fact about one biglaw firm that is not NY based but has a satellite office there, an attorney in that office informed me that he made partner when his book of business grew to $500k (presumably, on the expectation that it would continue to grow)

On the other hand, a partner at small law in a tertiary market might only have a $100k book of business.

Edit: you also need to be aware that a firm's compensation structure makes a big difference. Hale & Dorr created the Finder/Minder/Grinder system back in the 1940s, whereby the Finder partner bringing in a new connection would be allocated 10% of the profit from that client, forever. The Minder partner, who basically was the main sales person / point of contact for said client was allocated 20% of the profit, and the Grinder, the one doing the actual work, was allocated 60% (the remaining 10% went into a bonus pool). So a very good Grinder might not need to have a book of business at all and would still be well-compensated as partner, whereas a Finder partner would need a book of business literally 6 times as large to get the same compensation.

On top of that, practice area also matters. Corporate attorneys are expected to have a much larger book of business than Labor & Employment partners.

[BrainsyK]

I don't remember where I read this, but one suggested rule of thumb is that partners need to bring in about 3x what they take home. In 2016, K&E's bottom tier of equity partnership held 8.5 shares with each share worth $148k for a total compensation of ~$1.25mm. Take 3x that and you have ~$3.75mm. Obviously, lower tiers of partner might not be able to hit that 3x factor. Maybe they bring in 2x (but less on absolute basis) what they take home so $~2.5mm give or take $500k is probably vaguely in the right arena for NYC, Chicago, and Houston, which are probably their most profitable offices. Adjust for K&E growth in profits and inflation, that number is probably closer to $~3mm. K&E is V10 that's pretty profitable even by V10 standards so that estimate is probably a decent estimate of a "good" book of business even by biglaw standards.

Source re:K&E shares: https://advance.lexis.com/search?crid=5 ... rlapi=true

Then again, the question is so vague and the data so incomplete due law firms being private businesses so who the hell knows? None of this is even diving into the fact that most top firms have institutional clients that may not be counted towards anyone's "book."

[HereAndThere]

I appreciate the responses. Any other anecdotal evidence is welcome.

[FND]

Then again, the question is so vague and the data so incomplete due law firms being private businesses so who the hell knows? None of this is even diving into the fact that most top firms have institutional clients that may not be counted towards anyone's "book."

Institutional clients definitely count toward someon's book. But, it's also likely to be split up.

As an example, Hale & Dorr developed the infamous Finder/Minder/Grinder compensation model, where the Finder, the attorney that first brings the client in, gets 10% of the profits, the Minder, the attorney who manages the relationship and keeps the client sending in more business, gets 20%, and the Grinder, the attorney doing the work (or the department), gets 60% of the profits - with the remaining 10% going into a bonus pool for intangibles.

Once the Finder passes away or retires, that 10% may go to the firm generally, but someone will still be responsible for managing the relationship.