07.31.2019

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General News

John Devaney was mentioned in The American Lawyer* article "The Growing Nonequity Tier Is Forcing a Conversation on Partnership" on how big law firms are reevaluating the pathways in and out of partnership—and reconsidering how they organize their partnership tiers.

At Perkins Coie, there are four tiers to the partnership, a system the firm instituted roughly 20 years ago to prevent “salary creep,” where compensation rises each year simply because a lawyer remains on the payroll, according to John Devaney, who left the firm’s managing partner post July 1. Compensation is the main difference between the tiers, but there are others, including that tier-one partners are paid a straight salary and voting rights differ between the tiers.

There has been little change over the past decade in the proportion of Perkins Coie partners who have met The American Lawyer’s definition of nonequity; the number has hung around 60%. In that time, the firm has risen to 45th in revenue and 79th in profits per equity partner.

“It creates the year-in, year-out incentives that we want to create with our partners,” John says of the firm’s structure.

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