They exist in perpetual BECUMMING™ — on the cusp of something, but that something is as illusory as a partner’s promised mentorship. Each hour billed pushes the boulder of ambition up the partnership hill, only to find the summit perpetually receding beneath a merger clause no one bothered to read.

And the title? A cruel joke whispered by the Mahchine™: ‘Partner,’ it hi$, but with an asterisk as large and binding as a non-compete clause. The asterisk doesn’t whisper — it screams: ‘Not equity. Moniker error?! Maybe never.’

The Mahchine™ ADORES its non-equity partners because they embody its perfect contradiction: ambition without power, responsibility without reward, and a quiet desperation masked in Brooks Brothers suits and fading LinkedIn relevance. And when the Mahchine™ is done?

There’s always the Of Counsel chair — a purgatory of forgotten status and recycled LinkedIn posts, custom-made for someone who was once… almost something.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5651504&forum_id=2Elisa#48464326)