Partners meetings

It is the equivalent of the board meeting or a session of the cabinet or the European Council of Ministers. Here behind closed doors decisions of great moment are taken.
"I think I'll have hot chocolate instead of coffee today". The most junior partner scuttled off to the drinks machine reeling from the incisiveness of the senior partner.
When, in that junior position, I attended my first partners' meeting the only thing which convinced me that I was in the right place was the presence of all the partners. What I considered to be pre-meeting chat never ended.

The conversation shifted genially from one or two matters concerning the office - whether to increase the overdraft from £25,000 to £50,000, how many senior staff to make redundant and other trivia - to much more important issues germane to the outside world: whether the Wisbech Town Football Club would get anywhere in the preliminary stages of the FA Cup competition (it did once), the chronic lamentable performance of the English Cricket Team and how much the rates on private houses had gone up (it was during the time when we used to have that eminently fair and never criticised way of raising local taxes).
From time to time the partners helped themselves to another drink or a sandwich from the overbrimming plate prepared by a partner's spouse (one has to be so careful now not to be chauvinistic. Actually it was a wife who prepared the sandwiches. I know that because we were one hundred percent male in those days).

After two or three hours the conversation began to wind down. The senior partner took his shoes off and started talking about going home to roost. That was the sign that the proceedings were drawing to an end.
As I drove home later I searched in my mind for any decision which had been made that evening. There had been some: whether to eat the egg or the salmon and cucumber sandwiches; whether it would be safe to have one more drink. And did they say something about making me a profit sharing partner? If they did, I could not recall the details.
Although there is no legal requirement for them, partners meetings take place all over the country in all practices except - presumably sole practitioners' offices. The discussions seldom make news and secrets are almost as well preserved as the average jury deliberation.

Rumours sometimes get out. There is one East Anglian Firm whose partners are reputed regularly to come to blows when they cannot agree. I did see one with a black eye once, but discretion prevented me from asking if he had lost the vote the night before. At the other extreme I do know of a partner in a megalithic London firm where the partners are required from time to time to sit examinations to test their attitude and aptitude. Quite understandably he allowed himself to be head hunted by a saner firm. If we had tests like that we would all fail and have to dismiss ourselves from the partnership.
Over the years our meetings have become more structured. We started with a minute book, though nobody ever knew where it was. Later agendas were introduced. Now we are much more strict. Matters not on the agenda may not be discussed unless the whole partnership consents. We chair the meeting by rotation. We have a partnership secretary/office manager. Decisions are made, recorded and often acted on.
At every partners' meeting we have a print out of the monthly figures so that we can see how well - or more usually - how badly we are doing. We operate to budgets and targets and try to exercise some control over what we draw from office account. There is certainly a feeling that we are crisper and more business like than we used to be.
But we sometimes still cannot make decisions. Like one of those nightmares where you are trapped inside some undefined system, we recently went round and round the room discussing pay rises.

It is one thing to decide to give a single percentage across the board. That generates no controversy - and partners then compete to determine the lowest increment compatible with keeping everyone from walking out en masse. There was once an ugly moment when the application of the percentage rule meant that a part-time member of staff received less than 50 pence a week extra. She nearly did walk out - even though in those days you could buy more than 2 postage stamps for 50 pence. Since then we have ruled that no pay rise shall be less than £1 - though I suspect that if anyone stopped to calculate, it would now be worth less than that controversial 50 pence
The problems arise when you start to consider special cases. The argument goes like this:

Partner one:"My secretary/assistant/legal executive is totally dedicated, brilliant, fragrant and indispensable. He/she must have a really big pay increase this time"
Partner two:"Yes I agree she/he is good if he/she is ever in the office, but the time keeping is appalling and he/she is surly and unpleasant if ever I ask him/her to do anything. Now my secretary/assistant/legal executive is something altogether different... cannot put a foot wrong....loved by the clients....fragrant"
Partner three:"I cannot understand how you can work in the same office with him/her. Personal hygiene is clearly unknown to her/him. But consider my conscientious, fragrant, intelligent secretary/assistant/legal executive...."

And so it goes on until fighting breaks out or (as in our firm) we agree that everyone is a special case and give them all pay rises well above the rate of inflation. A day later we realise what we have done, and know that once again we will have to increase our working day if we are to keep up our own personal incomes.
We should all remind ourselves that we are what we are: partners; not antagonists, or opposing political factions or members of warring tribes. In troubled times like these it is important to have fun together (in truth many of our partners meetings are light hearted and friendly). Would any of my partners who are reading this please book us a private room at the Ostrich for the next meeting. The only items I want to see on the agenda are: the progress of Wisbech Town Football Club and the selection of the next English touring cricket team. Oh and mine's a pint of Abbot ale please.

This article first appeared in Solicitors Journal in October 1991