The Entitlement Trap and a Look in the Mirror

We talk a lot about entitlement in younger partners. We talk almost nothing about entitlement in senior ones. 

That asymmetry is worth sitting with. 

The concern about younger equity holders is legitimate. People who want the benefits of ownership without the full weight of it or the full commitment to doing what it takes to steward an enterprise. 

Who expect influence before they have demonstrated judgment. 

Who treat a partnership seat as an arrival point rather than the beginning of a different kind of responsibility. 

These are real patterns and they deserve direct attention. But I have watched something else in those same #AEC firms which needs to be called out. Senior partners who have not generated meaningful new work in years, sitting on corporate Boards long past good governance would suggest is healthy and holding equity positions that no longer reflect current contribution. Founders retaining governance influence well past the point of active involvement. People with protected seats at the table because of history, not because of what they are doing today. And in most cases, nobody says anything. Because they built the place and it is hard to say it out loud. Because the culture of seniority makes accountability in that direction almost impossible to apply. 

Here is what that costs. 

When ownership standards are applied selectively, the people coming up notice. And what they take from it is not that ownership is serious. What they take is that ownership protects you once you have enough of it. 

That is a credibility problem. It is also an avoidable one. 

The firms that get this right apply the accountability model in both directions. Senior partners are expected to demonstrate current contribution, not just point to legacy. Governance influence reflects active participation, not tenure alone. Walk the talk and lead by example. 

The standards for what it means to be a good owner do not quietly expire with seniority. That conversation is harder to have with a founder than with a junior partner. I understand why it gets avoided. But if ownership is genuinely a responsibility and not a reward, that principle does not come with a seniority exemption.

The firms that hold that line are the ones where the model actually works. And where the next generation actually believes in it enough to stay.