A new logic is emerging within the rarefied world of the law firm partnership.

Traditionally sustained by professional autonomy, clan control, and representative democracy, partnerships are based on ambiguous and negotiated relationships amongst professional peers, who are the firm's owners as well as its core producers. But in recent years there has been a growing acceptance amongst partners in large international law firms that they require more explicit forms of performance measurement and management and more hierarchical structures of governance in order to maximise Profits per Partner. In other words, the professional partnership is becoming a bit more corporate.

It was this change which prompted the researchers to study the rise of the management professional and their role in the professionalisation of management in large international law firms.

As part of the research, Professor Laura Empson and a team from the Centre for Professional Service Firms, interviewed management professionals and managing or senior partners in 20 large international law firms. A summary of the findings is now available for you to read below.

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