We noted this last week in a small report we made. Now Anthony Lin the Asia correspondent for Incisive Media has…
Written a detailed report on the new trend at Asia based law firms – it is well worth a read.
He introduces the article by saying….
Lockstep Gaining Favor in Asian Legal Practices
In U.S. legal circles, lockstep compensation usually is described as a relic of the profession’s bygone past. Though a handful of elite firms continue to embrace it, most others discarded lockstep and its seniority-based pay scale long ago in favor of performance-based compensation schemes for partners. Many large American law firms are now looking at abolishing lockstep for associates too.
But among emerging leaders of the legal profession in Asia, lockstep is getting a new lease on life.
Last fall, India’s top corporate law firm, Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., dropped its "eat-what-you-kill" performance-based pay scheme and adopted a pure lockstep for its equity partners. At the beginning of this year, leading Beijing corporate firm Haiwen & Partners likewise moved to lockstep for its 20 partners. Several other prominent Asian firms, including China’s King & Wood and Japan’s Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, also have some form of lockstep.
It may seem counterintuitive that firms in some of the world’s fastest-growing legal markets would opt for one of the legal profession’s oldest, least progressive traditions. But those firms say their eyes are on the long haul.
