Paul Reiss chief argues against short term financial gain

April, 14 2015

Chair Brad Karp has defended his firm's use of lockstep, rather than an 'eat what you kill' partner pay system, arguing that the profession has become overly fixated with short-term financial gain since American Lawyer began publishing revenues.

Speaking at a day of discussion at Harvard Law School, Mr Karp - chair of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison - said that the publication of law firm revenues, starting in 1987, had a negative effect. Describing the current environment, he said: 'There’s a tremendous undue emphasis on achieving short term economic gain. Every year it seems that phenomenon becomes more acute.'

Huge problem

He added: 'The world now is trending much more toward ‘eat what you kill’ and that is a huge problem.' Paul Weiss uses lockstep and, said Mr Karp, partners know what other partners earn. Source: Bloomberg