Lynda ArtesaniLegal Accountant and Data Migration Specialist at The Proper Trust

Understanding Partnership Agreements #lawfirms #legalaccounting #partner

29 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief conversation, the speakers share practical advice for law firms undergoing mergers or adding new partners. Speaker A emphasizes the first step of obtaining the partnership agreement, reading it thoroughly, annotating it, and discussing its provisions to gain clear insight into the firm's intentions. This clarity is presented as essential for guiding bookkeeping and operational decisions. Speaker B adds that attorneys often decide to take on a partner or expand practice areas without fully considering the bookkeeping implications, and that probing questions—like those raised by Steve—can reveal overlooked issues. The dialogue underscores the need for proactive review of partnership agreements to avoid surprises in financial management during firm transitions.

So my experience, I'm going to jump in right away on this because I've worked in law firms and I've been on that side of the fence where they merge and then they merge and then they merge and change. The very first thing, get a copy of their partnership agreement.
Yeah.
Read it front to back, make notes, put stickies on there, whatever you need to do, and have conversations. So you are, you have real clarity on what they intend to do. That's going to drive everything that we're doing on the bookkeeping side.
Yeah. And I think sometimes this is our experience, Sarah, like you, you can meet somebody, an attorney, and you go and talk to them and they're like, well, I'm taking on a partner. I decided I wanted to expand my business and get more work and taking this other practice area is usually what we see. Then they come in and then you start, we start asking the questions to Steve's point on the bookkeeping side. And then you can tell as you're talking to them that they hadn't thought of those things.
Right.