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From Lawyers to Rainmakers: The Road to Partnership Is Won in the Market, Not in the Courtroom

More and more, it is not legal talent but the ability to attract clients that makes the difference in law firms. The new partners are not necessarily the best jurists, but the best business generators.

For generations, the path to partnership in law firms was seen as a meritocracy of legal brilliance. Master the law, win complex cases, publish scholarship, and you would be rewarded with equity. That romantic image lingers in the profession’s collective imagination. Yet the reality across global law firms tells a different story: partnership today is not granted to the best jurist, but to the lawyer who brings in business.

Firms are enterprises, and sustainability depends on revenue. A lawyer may be a genius in the courtroom, but without clients the brilliance is commercially invisible. By contrast, the colleague who secures a corporate account, closes a lucrative deal, or cultivates lasting ties with decision-makers becomes indispensable. In practice, many promotions reward not technical mastery but social capital: being the child of business elites, carrying a recognizable surname, or moving naturally in influential networks. Legal excellence is abundant; rainmakers are rare.

In the United States, this model is explicit. Aspiring partners must show a “book of business,” a personal client portfolio guaranteeing future revenue. Major firms like Kirkland & Ellis or Latham & Watkins hire lateral partners not for their legal theories but for the clients they bring along, sometimes paying extraordinary premiums. Competition is so fierce that many technically brilliant lawyers remain counsel forever if they cannot prove client-attracting power.

London’s City firms are similar: the business case is a formal requirement in the promotion process, forcing candidates to present detailed revenue forecasts and growth strategies. On the continent, the model is less aggressive but converging. Even firms with strong academic traditions now expect partners to act as business developers. Surveys show that over 70% of European partners attribute their success more to relationship management than legal expertise.

In Latin America, capital of another kind dominates: family and political networks. In Mexico, Brazil, or Colombia, a famous surname can be as valuable as a litigation win. Law firms deliberately seek candidates who can “open doors” in boardrooms. At the same time, some progressive firms try to level the field by training associates without privileged backgrounds in business development, client management, and personal branding. In Asia and the Middle East, partnership often goes to lawyers who can bridge legal and cultural divides, serving as trusted connectors between investors and governments.

The trend is reinforced by structural changes. Marketing and business development departments now exist in most large firms, but they serve to support, not replace, the partner’s role as client magnet. Digital platforms, from LinkedIn to podcasts, have become arenas where lawyers must build authority and visibility. The profession increasingly celebrates not only the best litigators or dealmakers but also the “rainmakers of the year.”

This shift is not without costs. It risks entrenching inequality by privileging those born with connections. It can demoralize talented technicians who see less rigorous but better-connected peers promoted ahead of them. And it strains the profession’s ethical fabric: when client acquisition dominates, independence may erode and the temptation to pursue questionable cases grows.

Yet the direction is clear and unlikely to reverse. Young lawyers aspiring to partnership must learn that their careers are built not only in libraries or courtrooms but also in the art of trust, networking, and opportunity. Mastering codes of law is essential, but mastering codes of access may be decisive. In the words increasingly heard in global law firm corridors: you don’t make partner for being good, you make partner for bringing business.