Asters' Senior Partner shares the benefits of planning a career as partner at a high-profile international forum

On 23 April 2009, Armen Khachaturyan, Senior Partner at Asters, participated in the Independent Law Firms Forum entitled "The future for independent law firms. Strategic thinking in a downturn – forward thinking for the upswing". The Forum was held in London and hosted by Legal Week. The Independent Law Firms Forum is an annual London gathering of senior representatives from the world’s leading independent law firms.

Mr. Khachaturyan's participation also entailed moderating the interactive focus group "Partner plus – benefits of career planning." Mr. Khachaturyan shared the moderating duties with Bruno Bartocci, Partner at the Italian firm Legance Studio Legale Associato. Both moderators and discussion participants provided ideas on how a firm can motivate its legal team with career incentives, support its lawyers in their long-term career goals and create alternatives to the partner route. Participants in the session discussed such issues as the internal management regulations with respect to becoming partner, the job description of partner – from initially making partner to becoming equity partner, and the criteria for maintaining partner status, as well as partner benefits.

This year's London event raised a number of timely issues for law firms during these troubled economic times, such as how firms can rebound and ensure a future of growth and profitability, what decisions managers need to consider for 2009, how best to manage a firm for the challenging months ahead, and how to adapt and thrive in a changing market.

The Independent Law Firms Forum aims to capitalise on this invaluable feedback by exploring how independent law firms can play on their strengths to rival their large international counterparts. This year's event brought together managing partners, senior partners, lawyers, commercial directors, and business development directors for purposes of networking, establishing new contacts, and most importantly, discovering opportunities with the aim of changing the managers' role in the firm to strengthen the firm’s position in the market.

Sharing his impressions of the event, Mr. Khachaturyan noted: "The forum has traditionally drawn high-level discussion participants. The forum’s professed aim is to provide upper-level and mid-level law firm management with the tools and networking opportunities to stay ahead in the increasingly challenging markets. I’m happy to say that this aim has indeed become a reality."