Confidential therapy, firm-funded, walled off from firm IT.
A firm-funded therapy benefit for AmLaw and Magic Circle US-office equity partners that runs entirely outside the firm's IT, HR, and benefits systems. Intake never touches a firm-issued device. The firm receives no information about who has engaged.
A firm-funded clinical channel that the firm does not see.
This page is for firm chairs, managing partners, partner-relations leads, and well-being committees at AmLaw and Magic Circle US offices scoping a fully confidential, firm-funded therapy benefit for the equity partnership only. If that is you, the rest of this page is the briefing document.
CEREVITY operates as a clinical network with direct relationships between the network, the clinicians, and the contracting firm. The structural innovation for this vertical is the wall: eligibility is administered through the partnership agreement, but the channel through which equity partners actually engage runs entirely outside the firm's IT, HR, and benefits systems. No intake URL ever sits behind a firm SSO. No appointment ever appears on a firm-issued calendar. No utilization ever attributes back to a named individual.
The eligibility model is what makes the wall possible. The firm contracts for the equity partnership as a defined eligible population, funds the partnership commercially, and receives confirmation that contracted services were provided and aggregate utilization in line with the partnership agreement. The partner-facing channel, including intake, scheduling, and care delivery, is administered by CEREVITY on infrastructure the firm has no visibility into and no administrative role in.
Equity partner engagement requires a different confidentiality posture than any workforce-wide benefit.
Equity partners do not engage with the EAP. They do not engage with platform benefits. They do not engage with anything where the path of access is administered by the firm they own. This is not a stigma problem the firm can market its way out of. It is a structural problem the channel itself has to solve.
The partner-tier presenting profile is real and well-documented: high-functioning anxiety maintained at significant personal cost, decision fatigue compounded across decades, identity-fusion with practice, the specific isolation of partnership-level governance, and substance-use risk patterns elevated relative to the general adult population. The ABA Hazelden Betty Ford study established the underlying prevalence; senior practitioners are not the cohort with the lowest rates.
The reason the EAP and the firm's digital wellness vendor do not reach this population is not the clinical profile. It is the channel. Equity partners do not click links on firm-issued laptops to schedule therapy. They do not put appointments labeled with a benefits vendor name on calendars their assistants manage. They do not enter intake information into platforms their firm administers. The wall has to be architectural, not promised.
What changes when the channel is built around the equity partner: intake outside the firm SSO, scheduling that does not touch firm calendar infrastructure, billing that flows through the partnership agreement at the entity level, and a contracted reporting scope that the firm chair can stand behind in a partnership meeting because it does not allow them to see anything they have promised not to see.
What CEREVITY clinicians treat in the equity partnership.
The clinical scope is built around the presenting profile of AmLaw and Magic Circle US-office equity partners, not the workforce-wide profile an EAP is built for.
Origination pressure
The book that drives compensation also drives a particular kind of chronic stress. The pressure to feed and protect the book becomes its own clinical issue when it stops being seasonal and becomes structural.
Decision fatigue
Hundreds of consequential decisions a week, each with downstream client, firm, or matter implications. Eventually the cost shows up, and not in the obvious places.
Governance isolation
Practice group chair, executive committee, managing partner. The isolation of these roles is itself a treatable issue. The same governance position that prevents the partner from engaging with the firm's standard channel makes this work particularly necessary.
High-functioning anxiety
Performance maintained at cost. The output looks fine to the client, the firm, and the family; the cost is invisible until it is not. Common across the equity tier.
Identity fusion with practice
Thirty years of being defined by the practice means the work of separating self from role is its own clinical project. Particularly acute in the runway to retirement, of-counsel transitions, and post-equity arrangements.
Substance-use risk patterns
Elevated relative to the general adult population, and historically under-addressed because the standard channels are channels the equity partner will not use. Treatable in a channel they will.
Marriage and family strain
Decades of work-cycle subordination of family life produce a clinical signature. The work of addressing it is most effectively done outside the channel the family member also has access to.
Succession distress
The transitions in and out of governance roles, equity tiers, and active practice are clinical events, not just career events. The isolation around them is its own treatable issue.
Three session formats, each chosen for the work.
Most benefits programs offer one session length. CEREVITY offers three, because different kinds of clinical work need different amounts of time. The choice is made between the clinician and the partner, not by what a payor will reimburse.
The steady cadence of ongoing therapy. Most clients spend most of their care here.
For work that needs more room than a standard hour can hold.
For work that needs uninterrupted time to reach resolution.
Because CEREVITY operates outside the insurance reimbursement model, session length is set by the clinical work, not by what a payor will reimburse. That is the structural reason all three formats can exist on the same network, and the reason equity-partner-tier integration work can happen in 3-hour blocks instead of being rationed across multiple 50-minute sessions.
Ready to scope an equity-partner briefing?
Briefings are scoped to your firm. We respond personally within 48 business hours with proposed times, the wall architecture specific to your IT and benefits posture, and any prepared materials relevant to the shape you are evaluating.
Request a briefingHow a equity partner is matched.
Matched, not first-served. Here is the process that produces the match for an equity partner, end-to-end outside the firm's IT and benefits systems.
The eligible individual submits a confidential intake form covering presenting issues, modality preference, professional context, and scheduling parameters. Operated by CEREVITY, not a broker.
Intake is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership against the network's active capacity, current licensure footprint, and modality availability. The step that does not exist in an EAP.
A specific clinician is matched to the equity partner. They receive the match with the clinician's profile, modality, and credentials, plus a direct online scheduling link.
Scheduling runs directly through CEREVITY infrastructure. No phone handoff. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match.
Care continues on the cadence the clinical work requires, in 50-minute, 90-minute, or 3-hour sessions, without an employer-imposed cap.
Capability comparison for AmLaw and Magic Circle Equity Partners.
An evaluation framework on the dimensions that matter when scoping a equity-partner-tier offering for equity partners. Both models have a place; they are designed for different populations.
| Dimension | Typical EAP | Executive-tier platform | CEREVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network model | Broker layer between firm and contractor roster | Single-vendor platform, W-2 or contracted pool | Independent clinical network with direct relationships |
| Clinician assignment | First contractor to reply with availability | Algorithmic matching on intake-form inputs | Clinical review by network leadership |
| Intake and scheduling | Phone handoff to clinician's line | App-based intake and scheduling | Network-operated intake, direct online scheduling |
| Session formats | Standard 50-minute; capped session counts | Standard 45 to 50-minute sessions | 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour formats, no cap |
| Clinical scope | Acute, broadly applicable concerns | Workforce-wide, executive tier as upsell | Built around AmLaw and Magic Circle Equity Partners presenting issues |
| Modality fit | Generalist talk therapy | Generalist therapy with some specialty | CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, matched at intake |
| Reach | National via roster density | National telehealth, roster variance | All 50 states via telehealth |
| Payment model | Firm-sponsored, in-network | Per-employee-per-month seat pricing | Private-pay, out-of-network, partnership agreement |
| Firm visibility | Aggregate, broker-mediated | Vendor dashboards with engagement | Administrative reporting only |
| Right fit for | Workforce-wide acute support | Mid-tier ongoing with executive add-on | AmLaw and Magic Circle Equity Partners, end-to-end |
What the firm sees, and what it does not.
For a equity-partner-tier channel to function, the participating equity partner has to trust that engaging with it does not create visibility into their care. CEREVITY is built around that requirement.
- Confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals.
- Aggregate utilization at the partnership level, where contractually appropriate.
- Invoicing and eligibility reconciliation.
- Nothing tied to a specific named equity partner's clinical content.
- Whether a specific named equity partner has scheduled, attended, or engaged.
- What clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned.
- Session notes, treatment plans, or diagnostic information.
- Any attendance detail at the individual level.
Clinicians are independent licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. Protected health information is held within the clinical infrastructure, and the agreements governing it are defined in writing before the partnership goes live.
Clinical records, session content, and individual engagement data sit inside the clinical platform. The administrative layer the partner interacts with is structurally separate from the clinical layer.
Eligibility lists are maintained on the partner side and confirmed at the point of intake. Administering eligibility does not require the partner to receive clinical information back.
A Business Associate Agreement is executed where the partnership structure requires it. The partnership agreement defines the administrative reporting scope in writing before the partnership goes live.
What the first 30 days look like.
The hardest part of a equity-partner-tier partnership is not the contract. It is the period between signature and the first equity partner in care.
A 60-minute kickoff with your team and CEREVITY's partnership lead. We confirm the partnership shape, the eligibility model, the administrative reporting scope, and the internal owner. The BAA, where applicable, is executed.
Your team provides the eligible-individual list. CEREVITY confirms it against the network and establishes the verification path at intake. Only eligibility confirmation flows forward.
CEREVITY provides a confidential, equity-partner-appropriate comms template explaining the benefit, the privacy posture, and how to access intake. Designed to be received without stigma.
Eligible individuals begin intake on their own cadence. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days. By day 30, the partnership is operational and a quarterly review cadence is in place.
The business case for the firm chair and the partner-relations function.
Three axes the firm chair, the partner-relations function, or the executive committee can defend in a partnership meeting. The numbers will vary by firm; the structural argument does not.
Equity partner retention is a per-departure problem, not a workforce problem.
A single equity partner departure costs the firm meaningfully in book transition, lateral search, capacity rebuild, and partnership signal. Retention math at the equity tier is not workforce retention math. A firm-funded, fully confidential channel built for the equity partnership pays for itself across very few prevented departures.
Equity partner performance is a leveraged input.
A senior equity partner running at 70 percent of capacity is not a 30 percent productivity loss to the firm. It is a leveraged loss across every matter that partner supervises, every associate they mentor, and every client relationship they hold. Recovery of clinical capacity flows downstream through the entire pyramid.
Lateral equity attraction.
Mid-career and senior laterals evaluating an equity move increasingly assess firm well-being posture as part of the partnership decision. A firm-funded, IT-walled, equity-tier mental health channel is a differentiating signal in the lateral market and a defensible answer in a partnership conversation.
Questions equity partners and their teams ask first.
Intake does not sit behind firm SSO. Scheduling does not write to firm calendar infrastructure. Care delivery does not touch firm-issued endpoints unless the partner chooses to use one. Eligibility is administered through the partnership agreement, but the partner-facing channel is operated by CEREVITY on infrastructure the firm has no administrative role in.
No. Administrative reporting only. The firm receives confirmation that contracted services were provided to the eligible partner population and aggregate utilization where contractually appropriate. The firm does not see whether a specific named partner has scheduled, attended, or engaged, what clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned.
Clinicians in the CEREVITY network are independently licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. The handling of any protected health information, and the specific agreements that govern it including any Business Associate Agreement, are defined in writing in the partnership agreement before the partnership goes live, scoped to your firm's structure.
The firm provides the eligible-partner list to CEREVITY. CEREVITY verifies eligibility at the point of intake. Only the confirmation that an eligible individual engaged flows back at the aggregate level, in line with the contractually scoped administrative reporting. Identity, clinical detail, and individual engagement do not.
No. CEREVITY is a structural complement to both. Most firms keep their EAP in place for workforce-wide coverage, refer partners with impairment-level issues to the appropriate LAP, and add CEREVITY as the equity-partner confidential channel for ongoing depth-oriented work.
Stipends solve the funding problem but not the matching problem. CEREVITY is a clinical network with active capacity, modality coverage, and a clinical-review matching process. The equity partner gets a matched clinician with relevant experience, not a fee reimbursement and a Psychology Today search.
First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of intake, depending on modality requirements and scheduling parameters.
Through a briefing call. Use the form below or email [email protected] directly. Briefings are scoped to your firm; we respond personally within 48 business hours.
Tell us about your firm. We respond within 48 business hours.
Briefings are scoped to your firm. Share a few details below and we will respond personally with proposed times, the wall architecture specific to your IT and benefits posture, and any prepared materials relevant to an equity-partner confidential channel.
The structural argument on this page is based on the firsthand experience of CEREVITY clinicians who have served on EAP panels, combined with widely-published industry estimates of EAP utilization and AmLaw and Magic Circle Equity Partners-specific data where cited. Specific contractual scopes are confirmed in writing in the partnership agreement before any partnership goes live.
