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By Murray Gottheil | November 12, 2025
Getting into a partnership can be exciting. Staying in one is often more of a mixed bag. But exiting a partnership? Now we have something to talk about!
Some of my best client work involved partnership break-ups. They can become very nasty, very quickly.
The most memorable involved a dentist who wanted to break up with a partner whom I called the “dentist from hell (DFH). The DFH’s idea of negotiating the departure of my client was to report his partner to the College of Dentistry for bad dentistry. Then the DFH called the finance company with whom my client was negotiating financing for his new practice to tell them that they should not provide credit to my client because he was under investigation by the College.
I also had a great deal of fun (i.e.- large billings) helping a personal injury partner exit his firm. None of the other partners practiced personal injury law. The partnership agreement did not contemplate the peculiar nature of a personal injury practice, which involves carrying large amounts of work in progress for long periods of time. We got our guy out of there, but it was not a pleasant walk in the park.
The first law firm partnership exit that I observed first-hand involved the rather hasty departure of a partner who headed the litigation department of a mid-sized firm, taking all of the litigation associates, a law clerk, some assistants, and even the articling student with him. He also took with him the physical files, which, at the time, were an important thing to have. It sort of brings to mind the country song about the 18-year-old girl who ran off with her boyfriend so abruptly that she left the suds in the bucket and the clothes hanging out on the line.
There are fewer than 50 ways to leave your law firm partnership. During my career, I think I have observed them all. They range from, “You can stab them in the back, Jack” and “Take all the files, Miles”, all the way to “Work until you’re sick, Dick”.
One might think that lawyers who are offered partnerships would be very concerned to ensure a good exit strategy. After all, when advising clients about commercial arrangements, terminating the agreement and its legal consequences are always hot topics that well-drafted partnership agreements will address. Not surprisingly, however, the terms may protect the ongoing partners, not the departing partner.
My advice to lawyers who are becoming partners? On your way in, think about the way out. Be sure that you will get your capital back, Jack, that you won’t have to pay a big bill, Phil, and that you can take your clients with you, Sue. If the way out is not clear, instead of becoming a partner, think about staying on as an associate, or getting another job, Bob.
Murray Gottheil is a retired lawyer living in the country, happy and driving a pickup truck. Reach him at murray@murraygottheil.com, and see what he is up to at www.lawanddisorderinc.com.
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