Let's Take a Page from the UK

I don't know about you, but I can't wait.  For what?  For the results of Legal Week's survey of the intentions of the top 50 UK firms regarding conversion to LLP status to come true:

• 14 of the top 50 have already converted;
• 28 of the remainder either have firm plans to do so or have it "under review;" and
• only 3 report they have "no plans" to do so.

Why does this matter? 

Let's separate cause from effect.  The cause of the wholesale conversion is, as would be the case in the US, to avoid "Armageddon [personal] liability" for partners in a firm hypothetically sued for massive malpractice—or for minor malpractice with massive financial consequences to others.  Younger partners, in particular, so it is reported (perhaps having grown up in a more litigious world—I speculate), are beating the drums for conversion.

The effect, however, is what has my blood racing:  UK LLP's are required to publish independently audited financials which, among other things, will show how much individual partners are making.  (This is, alas, not so in the US—an unfortunate lacuna in our British law inheritance.)  As the FT drily puts it, "solicitors have been reluctant to divulge such details."  

As previously reported, Allen & Overy has led the way, with as pithy and compelling a justification as one could wish for:  They did it "to be taken seriously as a modern, competent business."  Attention, all you gaming the numbers:  Time's up!