Jones Day "makes down" at least five London partners
13 November 2009
RollOnFriday can reveal that 10% of Jones Day's London parthers have been demoted to Of Counsel.

The five (and there are unconfirmed reports of a sixth) are in the real estate, company/commercial, capital markets and pensions departments. All have been demoted over the course of 2009, and some of them now find themselves reporting to partners who they themselves promoted. An insider says that one of the demoted partners, who is 22 years PQE, has a boss who was only made up last year. Which must make for a happy working environment.

In Jones Day's defence, at least the partners are still gainfully employed, albeit with lower status and less wedge, while plenty of other City firms have just kicked out large swathes of their equity. And pretty much uniquely in this market, all the demoted partners are male... But it does bring into question what partnership at a US firm is worth: while it's bad enough to be de-equitised, it's another things altogether to be dropped from the partnership.

Jones Day's London Managing Partner firing someone yesterday*

It's a surprising move by Jones Day, as the London office has been rumoured to have had a very good year. And it's a particular kick in the nuts for the firm's real estate team. Only one partner has been made up in the department since 2004, and he promptly used his new found status to jump ship to Macfarlanes.

A spokeswoman for the firm confirmed the demotions but wouldn't comment any further for fear of being demoted to summer student.

*Not really, it's Sir Alan Amstrad