"Pao and Nazre were both partners." This glosses over a significant problem. Partners are stratified like professors at univesrity. The issue about resolving

"Pao and Nazre were both partners." This glosses over a significant problem. Partners are stratified like professors at univesrity. The issue about resolving any conflict by the junior-status person taking up with a new employer is not controversial. Its basically common practice and common sense. So there is no real crux to this other than someone stating the obvious. The logic is the same if the senior person is of either sex. Once you cross the line of having a marriage you have a legal obligation to that person that can create a conflict of interest. You also have a lack-of-diversity in income that could cause a cascading financial issue if that conflict of interest ever materialized in an adverse way. So, by resignation and re-employment with anotehr firm you eliminate the conflict and diversify the income base. You do this whist protecting the largest income stream with the lowest risk strategy (doing nothing) and by taking the risk (of change/finding a new job) with the smaller (and by implication less valuable) revenue stream. Again, has nothing to do with sexism. The roles could easily be reversed and the logic would still be the same.