It started with Australia’s first firm-wide pay-freeze.

It continued with remarks from top dog Gaivn Bell that the pay-freeze would continue until further notice.

(Not) a Freehills Executive Partner

Then, last week, Freehills announced a veiled ‘Australian legal first’, which in reality appears a calculated attempt to ‘hedge’ the number of graduates which the firm will be required to commit to in the future.

And now, another Australian first!

Freehills has announced that it is establishing a new role within the firm; executive counsel.

The role - which is salaried - is designed to provide an alternative promotion opportunity for senior associates who do not wish to become equity partners.

Managing Partner Peter Butler declared:

We lose these very senior lawyers because, while they don’t aspire to be partners, they regard a role less than that - senior associate for instance - as being sub-optimal … We want this executive counsel role to be positioned so that it carries very considerable status internally and externally. That it’s regarded - as it ought to be - as a partner-quality role. It offers a real alternative to partnership to those who don’t necessarily aspire to be partners.

But the question remains, is this just another attempt to save the partnership money in these troubled times? At a time when less lawyers are being made up to senior associateship and partnership on average than at any time in the last two decades, is Freehills flagging that it will make even less lawyers partners in the future?

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