Debevoise Joins Most Rivals in Creating Non-Equity Partner Tier

Debevoise & Plimpton, which was one of the last law firms with a single group of partners, has created a second tier that will primarily pay in salaries rather than equity.

The firm’s partnership voted to create the new tier, the firm said in an email Monday. Debevoise partners will fall into one of two categories moving forward: those who receive shares of the firm’s profits and those paid primarily through a salary.

The “non-equity"—or “salary"—designation allows firms to offer lawyers the title of partner while reserving shares of the firm’s equity for the most profitable attorneys. Despite their salary-based income and 0% ownership share of the firm, non-equity partners often face the same financial burdens as their equity counterparts, such as sharing their firm’s state tax liabilities and having to pay their own Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Firms including Paul Weiss Rifkind & Wharton & Garrison, Cravath Swaine & Moore, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and WilmerHale have already moved to add two tiers of partners in recent years by recruiting and promoting lawyers into their so-called non-equity partner ranks.

The number of non-equity partners in the Am Law 200 nearly overtook the number of equity partners last year, according to data by the American Lawyer. The nearly 50-50 ratio has non-equity partners amounting to 30,709 of the 62,103 partners reported in 2024.

A small contingent of firms in the Am Law 100 have held out without a non-equity tier, including Jones Day, Ropes & Gray and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom—though partners at Skadden are considering adding one, Bloomberg Law previously reported.

Representatives of Debevoise didn’t immediately return requests for further comment. The American Lawyer earlier reported the Debevoise change.