"This was in the wake of other storied firms welcoming nonequity partners to their ranks, starting in November 2023 when Cravath created a "salaried partner tier." That move gave other highly ranked firms permission to tread the same path, including Paul Weiss, which announced its new two-tier partnership plan in March 2024; WilmerHale, which added a nonequity partnership tier in August 2024; Cleary, which announced its own new partnership platform in October 2024;"
"Ropes now seems to have settled on its single partnership tier. In an interview with the American Lawyer, partner Dan Stanco, a member of the firm's policy committee, said it would be "premature" to say the firm will be incorporating a nonequity partnership tier. So, for now, the firm will retain its equity partnership scheme, but who's to say what the future holds."
Many Biglaw firms have moved from single-tier partnerships to two-tier models that include nonequity or salaried partners. Firms that adopted nonequity tiers include Cravath, Paul Weiss, WilmerHale, Cleary, Skadden (considering), and Schulte Roth & Zabel. Ropes & Gray considered creating a nonequity partnership tier but has decided it would be "premature" to adopt one and will retain its equity partnership scheme for now. Ropes generated $4,989,000 in profit per equity partner in 2024. Bloomberg Law projects that nonequity partners could outnumber equity partners at the largest U.S. firms by the end of 2025.
Read at Above the Law
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