Services / Partner track
Partner track
Everyone on the panel knows you are good. The question is whether you already sound like a partner.
Preparation for the partner process in law firms, consultancies and advisory firms: the business case, the presentation to the panel and the interview. We rehearse it until you walk in sounding like one of them, not like someone asking to be let in.
What the panel is really listening for
By this point nobody doubts your technical work. They are deciding whether they would put you in front of their best client tomorrow, and whether you will bring work in. A lot of that is decided by how you sound when you talk about money, about your plan and about yourself.
The usual problem is that people present the business case the way a senior associate presents a piece of work: careful, complete and asking for approval. Partners do not ask for approval. They give a view and they hold it when someone pushes.
What we work on
The business case, out loud. Your numbers, your clients and your plan, said so that it sounds like a decision and not a request.
The first two minutes. Panels make up their mind early. We work on your opening until it holds when you are nervous.
The questions you do not want. Why you and not someone else in your group, what happens if your main client leaves, why now. I ask them the way a sceptical partner would, until they stop catching you out.
Talking about yourself. Most people undersell or oversell. The panel hears both.
What you leave with
Your opening and your business case, rehearsed out loud until they hold under pressure.
Your answers to the questions you are dreading.
A routine for the hour before the panel.
A short written note after each session with what to keep and what to watch.
Format
If it is a few weeks away: three to six sessions, the last one as close to the date as possible.
If it is a few days away, the intensive: two sessions of two hours in the three days before, or one session of three hours. We work only on what you are actually going to say.
Online, or in person in London or Madrid. In English or Spanish.
Who it is for
Senior associates, counsel and legal directors going through a partner process. Directors in consultancies, the Big Four and advisory firms on the way to partner. Also lateral partners who have to present their plan to a new firm.
Why me
For years, as a singer, I did auditions: a few minutes in front of a panel that is deciding about you, with no second chance. Before that I spent ten years in banking and corporate finance, at HSBC, EY and JLL. I work with law firms in London and Madrid, among them Dawson Cornwell.
Questions
When should I start preparing for a partner panel?
Ideally a few weeks before, when the business case is written but there is still time to change how you present it. If there are only a few days left, the intensive works on what you are going to say and nothing else.
Do you help write the business case?
No. The content is yours and your firm’s. I work on how it sounds when you present it and when you defend it. If something in the structure makes it hard to say, I will tell you.
Can my firm pay for it?
Often, yes. Many firms have a development budget for people in the partner process. This is how to ask for it.
Is it confidential?
Yes. Nobody at your firm hears about it from me. If your firm pays, it gets the proposal and the invoice, and what we work on stays between us.
How much does it cost?
There is no public price list. Write to me with the date and what is coming up, and I send you a short written proposal within two working days.
It might be a board meeting, a hearing, an investor pitch, a promotion panel or a team that is not getting its message across. Just send me an email, there is no form. I reply within two working days and, if it makes sense, we have a 20-minute call. Or start with a free voice read: send me two minutes of you in a real meeting and I will tell you what I hear.