Jones Day: Mandatory Retirement For Big Hitters Creates Opportunity For Others

Some thoughts on the Jones Day partnership from Michael Allen of Lateral Link (sponsored post).

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a new series of posts on lateral partner moves from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Today’s post is written by Michael Allen, the Managing Principal of Lateral Link, who focuses exclusively on partner placements with Am Law 200 clients.

An intriguing demographic dilemma is approaching a powerhouse law firm, Jones Day, as several senior partners and chairs are straddling the mandatory retirement age. The firm currently has over eight partners — including numerous practice leaders and partners in charge — above their proclaimed mandatory retirement age, and over ten partners nearing the cutoff, which probably signals that Jones Day gives some partners a pass when it comes to retirement. For example, Mark Sisitsky, Hugh R. Whiting, and Bob Mittelstaedt, just to name a few, are all very respectable partners who are refining with vintage.

Jones Day generally restocks from within by promoting partners in the first quarter each year. In 2013, the firm internally promoted 29 partners in the first quarter, each with an average of 12.5 years of experience. Although Jones Day is five months away from the next round of promotions, Lateral Link has identified around fifty associates who are in the running for a partner promotion (although only a handful will ultimately get the nod). We have an idea who fits in both categories and have been fairly accurate in our projections from the past….

Jones Day also maintains a healthy balance by infusing the firm with lateral partners who bring accretive business from the outside, such as the coup of Bruce Bennett leaving to join Jones Day’s bankruptcy practice. Given the firm’s black-box compensation system, the firm does not have to answer to homegrown partners about the variance in compensation that is often necessary to attract big-ticket rainmakers like Bruce Bennett, who brings with him additional revenue not only sufficient to cover himself but also a handful of other attorneys.

Note, although 45 percent of all new partners were promoted from within over the last year as opposed to hired laterally, Jones Day brings in a considerable amount of partners through lateral hires each year. When I was in Miami recently visiting with several managing partners from other major firms, Enrique “Rick” Martin was the talk of the town since he recently joined Jones Day as a lateral partner from Greenberg Traurig to open the firm’s Miami office. Here Jones Day’s gain was Greenberg Traurig’s loss, not only figuratively but concretely, with the millions of portable business that followed him. Although anecdotally I hear from managing partners that fewer than 50 percent of lateral partner transitions last more than five years, some firms fare better than others, and time will tell with this one.

Given the current demographic makeup of Jones Day, we have identified a shortlist of lateral partners candidates from major Am Law firms who would likely entertain a lateral move to Jones Day to either fill the bench in certain practices or plug a few holes for partners who are straddling mandatory retirement. There are not many high-powered partners at other firms showing the exemplary talent necessary to lead and chair practices, but for a firm like Jones Day, which has shown itself to be a serious player in the quest for talent, we would not discount their ability to reboot quickly, and we have a few partners in mind who may be up for the task.

Disclosure: This series is sponsored by Lateral Link, which is an ATL advertiser.


Lateral Link LLP is one of the largest legal recruiting agencies in the world, with 13 offices in the United States and Asia. Lateral Link has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal, The American Lawyer, the ABA Journal, The Daily Journal, and the National Law Journal for its innovative approach to legal placement. Lateral Link recruiters are comprised of former practicing attorneys who have consistently succeeded in placing partners, associates, general and corporate counsel into some of the most reputable law firms and organizations in the world.