The Job of Managing Partner: Empowered or Emasculated?

Woman executive coaching a male employee across deskWhy eat-what-you-kill firm cultures produce weak CEOs.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli

Let’s review some best practices as to how the managing partner is elected, what is expected, for what term and how he or she is protected if removed from that role.

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The job differs whether it is being filled under the Eat What You Kill (EWYK) or Building a Village (BAV) models. For example, under the EWYK model, the managing partner is likely the largest equity partner, or if not, then the default would be that the role of the managing partner would be that of administrative partner.  Because the EWYK model is usually a silo model built around superstars, the managing partner’s role is to handle all of the matters that the other partners don’t want to do.  It is not uncommon in these scenarios that the managing partner earns a stipend to fill that position, and that the stipend is not very much (maybe $25,000 to $75,000 a year).