The idea is that cooperatives don't have to treat everyone exactly the same. You can have different "classes" of members. You can have ordinary worker members, but also "founder" members. For example, for an agreed number of years "founder" members can get to elect a certain amount of board seats and get a higher share of profits.
Sure, it moves away from "one-person one-vote" democracy and full equality, but only for a temporary period, and it still gives ordinary workers a much greater say in their workplace than they get in standard companies.
Possibly. My impression, purely from popular media, is that only partners have any say in the running of a law firm, and becoming a partner involves cash buy-in of some sort, which might be a little different from co-operatives, where usually all permanent non-probationary workers have some sort of vote. But as I say, my knowledge of law firms is mostly from watching The Good Wife, so....
You can become partner if you bring good clients with no cash buy in required. I think there are also different levels of partnership(i.e not all of them get their name in the office name).
https://jrwiener.com/cooperatives-and-founder-incentives/
The idea is that cooperatives don't have to treat everyone exactly the same. You can have different "classes" of members. You can have ordinary worker members, but also "founder" members. For example, for an agreed number of years "founder" members can get to elect a certain amount of board seats and get a higher share of profits.
Sure, it moves away from "one-person one-vote" democracy and full equality, but only for a temporary period, and it still gives ordinary workers a much greater say in their workplace than they get in standard companies.