In the 29 years since I was admitted, I have been an assistant solicitor, a salaried partner, an equity partner, a senior partner, a consultant and now (by choice) a sole principal.

Your recent articles and letters about partnership prospects for young solicitors, particularly for women, ignore the most important quality of a good partner - leadership.


The 'leader' of any firm must be the one who has a vision of where it should go, knows how to get there, is determined to get there, can show others what needs to be done to get there and can inspire them to do it. Anything less is a recipe for muddle.


Leadership potential is a natural attribute - a function of character and personality, not of learning. It is an in-born talent. Skills can be learned and embossed onto the talent, but if the gift is absent it cannot be acquired. It cannot be learned at seminars or from books.


Firms fail to consider why partners are necessary. Partnership is given as a reward to many who cannot lead. The result is dissatisfaction, conflict and the all-too-frequent recourse to that fall-back of all 'don't-knows', the ever-expanding office manual, written by the uncertain to convince them-selves and impress the workers.


Kevin Beach, KB Law, London