lawyers

Courts determine whether an individual has an equity interest in a law firm partnership by examining the financial investment and risk taken by the claimed owner, such as payment of capital and guarantees of obligations.
The rise of the non-equity partner in law firms management has changed the status associated with the title partner. Nearly half of all law firm partners are now classified as non-equity or limited equity.
The way in which the firm reports the income of a partner to the IRS in its tax filings are evidence of an equity interest in many cases, but describing an individual as an equity owner may not be conclusive.

The last refuge of the general partnership may be the law firm. However, the term “partner” in a law firm can have a number of different meanings and it often does not identify only the traditional equity owner of the enterprise. In many circumstances, “partner” is a title that indicates a senior attorney, usually at the top of the firm’s professional structure. It does not, however, provide a particularly reliable indication of either management responsibilities or a financial interest in the firm. partnership-526413_1280-1024x562

Not all partners are created equally. In fact, the rise of non-equity partner, those that do not share in the profits or capital of the law firm, is rising rapidly. Only 56 percent of the partners in law firms in 2018 were equity partners. (Above the Law, 3 Reasons to Embrace the Rise of Non-Equity Partners). That trend is a 250 percent increase over the past two decades. In 1999 the figure was 17.1 %.(Altman Weil, Inc. What Should Law Firms Do about Non-Equity Partnership).

Not surprisingly, the existence of an equity interest, or not, is not an uncommon area for dispute. In this post we consider here involving the effect of tax documents on the claim of an attorney that he held an equity interest in a well-known personal injury firm. Treatment for income tax purposes is invariably a key component of holding equity. Is it dispositive? In this case, no. Continue reading

Lawyers must evaluate cases and try to predict the most likely outcome. To be successful, to attract and win clients, they must do so with confidence. A recent study of the accuracy of those predictions, however, reveals that lawyers are often overconfident and overly optimistic in their assessments of a client’s case.

A recent study published in Psychology, Public Policy and Law revealed that the more confidence a lawyer expressed in his or her ability to achieve a possible result, the more likely he or she will fail to achieve those results. You can read the full article here (Insightful or Wishful – Lawyers Ability to Predict Case Outcomes.pdf).

The lesson appears to be that clients might want to maintain some skepticism about the results that the supremely confident lawyer predicts, even as they recognize that the statistics don’t tell the whole story. The lawyer who doesn’t believe in a case, or who lacks confidence will have a difficult time being the zealous advocate that is the touchstone of an effective litigator. We may not meet our lofty goals as often, but that is not to say that we don’t do better for our clients when we are confident in the case. In our next post, we’ll take a look at predicting the outcome in a business dispute case.

Articles Tagged with lawyers

Tax Treatment Alone Does Not Establish General Partnership

Courts determine whether an individual has an equity interest in a law firm partnership by examining the financial investment and risk taken by the claimed owner, such as payment of capital and guarantees of obligations.

The rise of the non-equity partner in law firms management has changed the status associated with the title partner. Nearly half of all law firm partners are now classified as non-equity or limited equity.

The way in which the firm reports the income of a partner to the IRS in its tax filings are evidence of an equity interest in many cases, but describing an individual as an equity owner may not be conclusive.

Lawyer Confidence May Be Poor Indicator of Results