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Professional Partnerships
Professional partnerships have unique challenges. While they are a "business," they are professions as well, with the attendant barriers to entry, including legal and professional duties and responsibilities. Professional partnerships are more "organic" than typical business partnerships, taking the form and traits of the individual partners. After all, the service being rendered is being performed by the individual members of the partnership. The partners are each responsible for the performance of their own and their associates' professional services, with associated quality control, professional liability, client service, and cultural challenges.
And, whereas in most business partnership structures and responsibilities can be assigned according to function, professional partnership roles and responsibilities are often more duplicative. This is the nature of being in a professional partnership relationship: everyone is expected to manage their part of the practice, perform and bill for their services, and attract new business.
Furthermore, unlike other businesses, professional partnerships are not generally valued based on generous multiples of cash flow and other economic factors: the personal nature of the services provided can be a limit, particularly when liquidity of partnership interests and other exit strategies are being considered. As the individual members of the partnership age, it presents another series of challenges.
Finally, as with most partnership structures, issues of control often arise: these are generally not naturally hierarchical entities. Strong personalities and other intangible factors frequently drive the partners' experience.
All of these factors can lead to conflict within the partnership entity. The Zelnick Group is uniquely able to address these types of issues by virtue of its direct experience working at public accounting and legal service firms in a professional capacity. Michel Zelnick is a former "Big Four" CPA, as well as having been a former practicing attorney.
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