The price of a rainmaker keeps climbing, and Gibson Dunn raids Kirkland

The price of a rainmaker keeps going up. Bloomberg reports top partners are now commanding around thirty million dollars, with more of that pay guaranteed for up to three years, and Eversheds Sutherland says laterals made up sixteen percent of its partnership last year.

At the same time, The American Lawyer is writing the eulogy for lockstep. Put those together and you get a market that pays for a book and is done pretending everyone is paid the same.

Plenty moved underneath that too. Gibson Dunn poached litigator Matt Owen out of Kirkland in Washington, Nixon Peabody added in Chicago, Polsinelli in San Francisco, and Greenberg Traurig in Sacramento.

On the business side, Goldman talked its general counsel into staying on as an adviser, and Morgan & Morgan is weighing a minority stake sale.