My brother is a lawyer at Hogan Lovells and was passed over for partner again this year. My dad, who was also a lawyer but mostly family, said back in the day they used to sit down with associates who weren't "partner material" and tell them so they wouldn't keep grinding away for a payoff that was never going to come. Is does that still happen?
I'm a consultant and they would never tell that to anyone, they love dangling that carrot endlessly and i imagine HR would lose their minds if any management team was that direct.
For reference my brother was a summer intern at HL and has been a FTE since October 2015.