Over the next 11 years, we observed what happened as HR professionals and managing partners tried to get to the root of associates’ and partners’ objections to the new role and how they responded to mitigate the concerns.
Yet their public responses to the role of counsel were based in the “professional” and “corporate” logics that were typical (and legitimate) within the firms.
Yet associates and partners alike distrusted the new role, in part because it didn’t fit into the norms of professional service firms.
When five elite London law firms attempted to introduce a new senior role — “counsel” — they thought that associates would jump at the chance to become a senior-level lawyer without the punishing hours and absolute devotion required of partners.
