On July 22, The American Lawyer quoted Joe Morford in its article exploring single-tier partnerships during a time when many law firms have added a nonequity partnership tier. In interviews, law firm leaders at firms with single-tier partnerships noted that these arrangements promote collegiality and fairness among partners.

Joe explained the “counsel” rank at Tucker Ellis as a sort of nonequity partnership, because it consists of lawyers who may or may not become equity partners one day, as well as others who may be later in their careers or are recent additions to the firm. Although Tucker Ellis added a second-tier partner level two decades ago, it reverted to the single-tier partnership after several years in order to “keep an even playing field.”

“One of the problems with the two-tier partnership is that some partners feel like lesser class citizens than other partners,” Joe explained. In a single-tier partnership where it’s one person, one vote, people feel like equals. ”

Noting the few partners who have chosen to leave the firm during his 15 years as Tucker Ellis Managing Partner, Joe added, “If it didn’t work, we would have much higher attrition rates in our partnership ranks than we historically have.”