US / 15% of law firms are planning to reduce partnership ranks

In a setback for the struggling legal industry, about 15 percent of U.S. law firms said they were planning to reduce partnership ranks in the first quarter of 2013 in a move seeking to address the problem of underused partners, according to a new survey by Wells Fargo Private Bank.

The survey, which looks at the finances of 115 law firms, is one of the quarterly surveys by banks that work closely with law firms and compares data on a year-to-year basis.

For the third quarter of 2012, Wells Fargo found that firms posted modest revenue gains and moved to rein in expenses, but their growth was strained by partners who are not billing enough hours.

Now some firms are planning to shrink partnership pools through reductions and planned attrition, the survey said…

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via Wells Fargo survey predicts law firms will cut partners.