Back in the running

WHAT DOES LIFE HOLD FOR EX-MANAGING PARTNERS? ANNE MIZZI REPORTS ON THE OPTIONS AVAILABLE

It might just be the job from hell.

But as more partners emerge from the lonely purgatory of management, there is growing evidence that there is life after being managing partner - but not as you know it.

One thing that is seldom discussed when a partner is poised on the precipice of managing partnerdom is what happens next.

After all, as full-time managing partner of a law firm with more than a handful of partners, you are actually being asked to hand over your clients when your partners say 'your law firm needs you'.Richard Gerstein of London-based Finers Stephens Innocent returned to fee earning last May after three years in the role of managing partner.

'I was absolutely petrified that I wouldn't have a client base when I got back,' he says.

But he took the job because his partners appealed to his better nature.

'They said to me: "If you don't do the job, the place will fall apart".'Three years down the line and with a new management structure in place, Mr Gerstein is getting his hotel litigation practice going again.

He says: 'I'm building things up very slowly.

It's very recent and it's very difficult.

Contacts I had three years ago don't hang around.

I don't expect overnight results.' A lot depends on what a solicitor is managing partner of.

Although pure management theory applies as much to tiddlers as to giants, there is a big difference in the amount of time that needs to be devoted to 'herding cats', as looking after a partnership has come to be known in management speak.

Ian Coles, London managing partner of US firm Mayer Brown & Platt, still spends more time fee earning than managing: 'I'm not completely taken out as perhaps a managing partner of a whole firm would be.

We are a firm with 1,000 lawyers.

If you are going to be a managing partner of that kind of institution and take the role seriously, you have to step out of it.'As firms grow, the full-time managing partner has become more commonplace.

And once the partner has learned the skills of management, he may be reluctant to return to fee earning, where he will probably have to scratch a client base from nothing.Eversheds' ex-managing partner of eight years, Peter Scott, decided to pursue the management track after stepping down and is now a consultant.

He explains: 'For me, to have gone back into fee earning would have been a backward step.'Like City-based Davies Arnold Cooper's former managing partner, Laurence Messer, he spoke to head-hunters and recruitment consultants about his prospects at the end of his term.

They were told the harsh truth - it would be very difficult for them to return to fee earning after the long stretch they had spent in management.

Mr Messer says potential employers are only after one thing: 'All the firms are interested in is your clients.' But he had made a pact with the devil and his clients were gone: 'If you are going to give up fee-earning work you are going to give up your clients and you can't keep up the pretence.

Lawyers are very retentive.

Once they've got your clients you are left with nothing.' Mr Messer also concluded that he could not face the return to fee earning and has joined a small West End firm, working two days a week.

'Having been managing partner, where you are at the hub of the firm, it would have been quite difficult to start at the bottom,' he explains.

But he is emphatic that there is life after being managing partner.

Mr Messer had been a self-proclaimed workaholic.

But now, he says, he has quality of life.

New pastimes include training for the London marathon and spending time with his family.

'It's a far more balanced life.

When you are on the treadmill you don't think about it.

I have at last had time to think about things.

It's a good balance now.' Richard Price, managing partner of London-based Radcliffes, which merged last month with Jay Benning & Peltz to create a 39-partner firm, describes his attitude as 'suck it and see'.

He has returned to fee earning in the firm's commercial department, which he headed before he became managing partner three years ago.

He says: 'It is a bit unnerving coming back into it.

Inside myself, I'm quite confident that if it doesn't work out there is life outside the law.'Radcliffes' partners promised Mr Price a 'soft landing' when he took the position.

Some firms are now taking their own advice and writing a 'golden parachute' clause into a managing partner's contract, although this is still rare.

Most firms rely on a gentleman's agreement, if the afterlife is discussed at all.

Mr Messer says the topic was never discussed at the start of his term at Davies Arnold Cooper, although 'it would have been helpful if people would'.'It's only fair, if you are going to take someone out of what they are trained to do to look after a firm, to give them a degree of security when they come back,' argues Mr Price.He freely admits his technical skills have suffered and needs the support of his partners in giving him time to catch up.

'I have not been able to keep up with the developments in the law in the same way as my partners.

It wouldn't be right for someone not to have time and opportunity to brush up on the law.' An incoming managing partner may well be tempted to encourage their predecessor out to pasture rather than having them breathing down their neck, but some envisage the emergence of a new breed of 'career managing partners' in the next five years.

Mr Coles says the role has the potential to develop into a full-time career for lawyers looking to trade in fee earning for the challenge of management.

Last year, Clifford Chance's former managing partner Tony Williams joined Andersen Legal in a similar role, although there is still generally little direct lateral hiring.

'That may happen in time,' he says.

'Law firm management is still in its infancy.' Richard Gerstein at Finers Stephens Innocent does not rule out the possibility, but is reticent: 'I don't say that it would never happen.

But the way in which law firms have generally managed themselves and the experience of chief executives shows that it is very difficult.' The frequently cited problem with chief executives is that if they are non-lawyers, they find it difficult to win the respect of their partners.

But as many firms implement more corporate partnership structures - which will receive a boost with the introduction of limited liability partnerships this year - perhaps lawyers who have traded in their clients to take care of their partnership will be able to take advantage of the changing landscape.

'Most of the large law firms are becoming more corporate in style.

If you have more of a corporate style and structure there will possibly be more opportunity for career managing partners,' argues Mr Scott.

But he emphasises: 'Partners will not accept people who are not one of their own.' The prospective managing partner certainly has good reason to be reluctant.

They must be assured support from the partnership if they are going to take on the challenging but precarious role.

'There should be more planning.

Otherwise the person is going to leave the firm,' says Mr Messer.

Mr Scott agrees: 'There is a need at the moment for law firms to think seriously about their managing partner and the career prospects for their managing partners.

And to have parachutes.' This is certainly one case in which it would be wise for lawyers to practise what they preach.

Put it in writing and draft those management contracts.