La fin est-elle proche?

Un article paru en début de semaine dans le New Republic, un magazine américain, prédit que des 150 à 250 grands cabinets aux États-Unis, il n’en restera que 20 à 25 dans 10 ans et que les 200 autres devront trouver des manières de se réinventer.

L’auteur dépeint plusieurs nouvelles réalités dans les grands cabinets, tout en extrapolant ce qui risque d’arriver d’ici quelques années si la tendance se maintient. Je vous avertis tout de suite, c’est un exposé assez long. Il vaut cependant la peine d’être lu, même s’il faut l’inscrire du côté des opinions très pessimistes du futur de la profession…

L’article se penche entre autres sur la réalité de Mayer Brown, un grand cabinet tirant ses origines à Chicago. En voici quelques bribes:

Sur l’accession au statut d’associé

Anciennement:

Admission to the partnership after seven years was the natural order of the universe as Mayer Brown understood it. “The ground rules were: Do legal work of a high quality. Work reasonably hard, and keep your nose clean. Don’t make stupid mistakes,” says Alan Salpeter, who joined the firm in 1972 and became one of its highest-billing partners. “I was not exceptional.” (Nous soulignons)

Dorénavant:

In 2004, the firm introduced something called an “income partnership,” a probationary period in which promising lawyers have to prove their worth before earning an equity stake. (…) But, in reality, making income partner typically means three-to-five more years of hustling, after which the lawyer may come up for the true promotion. (It wasn’t lost on associates that, when a lawyer becomes an equity partner, she receives a budget to order plush new furniture, while income partners keep “the same stuff I had,” as one put it.) Becoming a bona fide partner at Mayer Brown, like many of its competitors, is now a ten-to-twelve-year proposition. (Nous soulignons)

Sur les clients

Anciennement:

Since clients of white-shoe firms typically knocked on their doors and stayed put for decades—one lawyer told me his ex-firm had a committee to decide which clients to accept—the partner rarely had to hustle for business. He could focus his energy on the legal pursuits that excited his analytical mind. (Nous soulignons)

Dorénavant:

The surviving lawyers live in fear of suffering a similar fate, driving them to ever-more humiliating lengths to edge out rivals for business. “They were cold-calling,” says the lawyer whose firm once turned down no-name clients. (Nous soulignons)

Sur la manière de traiter associés et salariés

Anciennement:

(…) Mayer Brown could afford to be exceptionally generous to its lawyers, and it took great pride in nurturing them. For decades, its nickname was “Mother Mayer.” Every morning at 9 a.m., the most senior partners mixed with the lowliest associates over donuts and Danish in an eighteenth-floor coffee room. At night, they would huddle at Binyon’s, a nearby restaurant, to dine on the firm’s tab. “It would envelop you, take care of you forever,” says a former partner.

Dorénavant:

In 2007, the firm’s management committee stripped more than 10 percent of these brief-writers of their equity stake—45 total—only weeks before Mayer Brown held its annual partners meeting in London. The timing was unfortunate. Many partners had already reserved plane tickets for their spouses at their own expense. “They were all ready to go when the pink slips came out,” recalls a partner with a close friend who was affected. “One of the guys let go had that day booked a flight for his wife.”

Comme je le disais, il faut ranger cet article du côté des pessimistes, mais ça vaut tout de même la peine d’être lu. Je vous invite à le consulter ici.