A last holdout against tide of non-equity partners may shift.

THE Old Guard of L.A.'s legal scene might finally cave.

For years, Los Angeles-based Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP has been the last of the city's largest law firms to pay all its partners with firm profits.

But in recent weeks, Gibson's senior partners have been in talks to include among its ranks "non-equity" partners, or those partners who do not get paid with profits. No details have been divulged about the plan, which has yet to be approved.

The shift would mimic moves at most other firms, which have replaced traditional legal partnerships with a system in which a small percentage of partners are paid with salaries.

Such a structure allows firms to add partners while continuing to boost profits for each partner.

"We are aware that many of our peer firms have had a non-equity structure in place for many years, and we are simply evaluating whether we should consider a change," said Ken Doran, the firm's managing partner and chairman of its executive committee, in an e-mail.

The talks come as Gibson Dunn has fallen in the past year from being the most profitable firm in Los Angeles. In 2004, the finn's profits per partner were $1.5 million, up 10.2 percent from the year before but not enough to top the profits of two rival firms, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP, which reported $1.9 million per partner, and Irell & Manella LLP, with $1.54 million.

"They're all profitable," Edward Polk president of LawBiz Management Co., said of today's law firms. "The point is: How profitable? In order to attract lateral talent, or to keep existing talent, you have to make sure your number falls within a given range."

The move would put Gibson more in step structurally with its closest rival in size, Latham & Watkins LLP, which reported $1.4 million in profits per partner last year. Latham, with $1.2 billion in revenue, has twice the number of lawyers as Gibson does but over the years has shifted about one-fifth of its partners to "non-equity" status.