The biggest promotion of a lawyer's career is the one nobody prepares them for

The Financial Reality of Making Partner: tax status, capital, drawings and the first year's income gap

Making partner is celebrated as the pinnacle of a legal career — but it's also the moment a lawyer quietly becomes a business owner, with self-employed tax status, capital contributions, drawings instead of salary, and an entirely new set of financial responsibilities that nobody at the firm sits them down to explain. David explains why the skills that make an exceptional lawyer — precision, caution, deep specialism — aren't the same skills needed to manage equity, tax reserves, and long-term wealth, and why so many new partners spend their first year of partnership financially worse off than their final year as an associate. Having advised lawyers at every stage from senior associate to Magic Circle equity partner, he shares the patterns he sees repeatedly: the decisions that are cheap to get right early and expensive to fix later. It's the conversation every ambitious lawyer wishes they'd had before signing the partnership deed.

About David Shepherd

David Shepherd, podcast guest

Managing Partner – Business owner, Kingsford Wealth Management | Host, The 6 Minute Partner Podcast for Lawyers

17+ Years in financial services4 Major financial institutions in his career backgroundDipPFS Diploma-qualified Personal Finance Society member£50M+ Client business exits advised

David Shepherd helps high-earning professionals make sense of financial planning when their work, family life, and lack of time make long-term decisions easy to defer. His perspective comes from both sides of the financial world: the technical, markets-driven environment of investment banking, and the more personal, long-range work of financial advice.

David began his career in investment banking, working with organisations including Santander, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Barclays. He was drawn to the numbers, but over time realised that the work he valued most was not just analysing markets or managing financial detail. It was helping people make clearer decisions about their future. David transitioned into financial advice after reassessing his career direction and retraining through the Chartered Insurance Institute exams. He went on to build his expertise in financial planning and now works with successful individuals, professionals and business owners on building and managing their wealth.

Today, David works with professionals who are intelligent, ambitious, and often time-poor. He has a particular focus on lawyers and city professionals, along with successful business owners and people who have exited multi-million-pound businesses. A recurring theme in his work is that capable people can still neglect their own planning because they are busy solving complex problems for everyone else.

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