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40 Wake Forest L. Rev. 793 (2005)
Law, Culture, and the Lore of Partnership: Of Entrepreneurs, Accountability, and the Evolving Status of Partners

handle is hein.journals/wflr40 and id is 803 raw text is: LAW, CULTURE, AND THE LORE OF PARTNERSHIP: OF ENTREPRENEURS, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND THE EVOLVING STATUS OF PARTNERS* Robert W. Hillman** In important respects, contemporary partnerships are modifying the associational form under which they operate in ways that represent clear departures from the classic partnership model. This article explores how partnership law has evolved to allow partners to structure business associations that bear little resemblance to the partnerships contemplated by the default norms of the statutes. It also considers the implications of this change and questions whether long- standing assumptions concerning what it means to be a partner continue to hold. I. THE MYSTIQUE OF PARTNERSHIP There is a mystique associated with the word partner. Western literature is replete with usages of the term, almost invariably with positive connotations. A particularly pertinent and timeless example is found in Mark Twain's Poor Little Stephen Girard: Bending his noble form, the bank man dodged behind a door, for he thought the little boy was going to shy a stone at him. But the little boy picked up something, and stuck it in his poor but ragged jacket. Come here, little boy, and the little boy did come here; and the bank man said: Lo, what pickest thou up? And he answered and replied: A pin. And the bank man said: Little boy, are you good? and he said he was. And the bank man said: How do you vote?-excuse me, do you go to Sunday school? and he said he did. Then the bank man took down a pen made of pure gold, and flowing with pure ink, and he wrote on a piece of paper, St. Peter; and he asked the * Copyright 2005, Robert W. Hillman. ** Fair Business Practices Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Davis. My thanks to Jodi Stanfield for her valuable research assistance on this article.

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