Making your way up the law career ladder is becoming an even harder prospect with fewer partnerships being offered.

Personnel Today has reported that law students hoping to be offered partnerships at 30 and retire in their mid-50s is not a career path that can be taken for granted anymore.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers Law Survey 2006 reveals that in the past five years the time it has taken for lawyers to go from new recruits to full equity partners in a top 10 law firm has increased from an average of eight years to 11. The most common age to be offered a partnership is now 35.

According to Matthew Thorogood, of PwC, the reason is simple. He said: "The main resistance to making people partners earlier is the dilution of equity for the existing partners. They want to maintain and increase the profit per partner."

Personnel Today states that statistics back this up. While average fee income has risen by 48% in the past three years for the top 25 firms, average partner numbers have increased by just 11%. And 50% of the top 25 firms reduced their equity partner numbers in 2006.

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