While law firms fiercely compete to recruit and hire the industry’s best and brightest, the strategy of accumulating stars without a strategic plan and simply hoping for the best tends to fail. Despite the staggering amount of money spent on talent (nearly 70 percent of a firm’s total expenses), many lateral hires fail to meet firm expectations and are out the door within three to five years. The secret to productive lateral hiring success lies initially in the pre-hiring strategy and later in the integration and retention of these newly acquired thoroughbreds. Yet, firms continuously misallocate their resources by spending too much time on recruiting and wooing prospective lateral hires rather than integrating them after they join—a misstep that leads to serious profit loss down the road.
What we’ve found—based on a decade of empirical data across many law and other kinds of professional firms—is that lateral hires who engage in collaborative client and internal work with their new colleagues are significantly more likely to stay with the firm longer, to hit or exceed their targets, and to prosper professionally. Interactive, client-focused work that often spans practice groups is how we define “smart collaboration.” Smart collaboration allows a team of talented problem-solvers with specialized legal expertise to integrate their collective knowledge to tackle and solve their clients’ thorniest problems, in ways that no single individual could accomplish—no matter how clever or hardworking.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
