Before You Sign a Partnership Agreement…

Read this first.

If you’re about to:

• Start a law firm with a partner
• Add a partner to your existing firm
• Convert a senior lawyer into an owner
• Or merge practices

This guide could save you years of frustration.

Because most law firm partnerships do not fail because of bad drafting.

They fail because the partners never aligned on the things that drafting assumes.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth

A partnership agreement does not create alignment. It only records whatever alignment already exists.

If partners have different visions, 

different definitions of fairness,

or different expectations about money, power, and exit…

…the partnership will eventually become a battlefield.

Inside the Guide

You and your future partner will work through five things that determine whether a partnership thrives or quietly fractures.

1. What are we actually building?

Lifestyle firm, growth firm, or future sale?

Most partners assume they agree. Many don’t.

2. What does each partner really contribute?

Not just hours.

Origination, management, reputation, capital, and risk.

3. How should fairness work over time?

What happens when someone outperforms?

What happens when someone slows down?

4. Who has power, and when?

Deadlocks destroy firms.

This shows you where they hide.

5. How does this end?

Because every partnership ends.

The only question is how.

Why this matters

Here’s what happens when this work is skipped:

Two partners form a firm. They split ownership 50/50. They trust each other.

Five years later:

• One is bringing in most of the clients
• The other is running the business
• Both feel underpaid
• Neither feels heard

The agreement says “equal.” Reality does not.

The partnership ends.

This guide is designed to prevent that — by forcing the right conversations while they are still safe to have.

Who this is for

This guide was built for:

• Law firm founders
• Lawyers becoming partners
• Firms bringing in new equity
• Practices merging together

If you are about to lock your professional future to someone else, this is required reading.

Get the Guide

Enter your email below and we’ll send you Before the Partnership Agreement: Strategic Guide for Law Firm Partners immediately.

You’ll be able to download it, use it privately, and walk through it with your future partner before a single clause is negotiated.

Because once expectations harden, conversations become negotiations.

And negotiations are where partnerships go wrong.