Lauren Drake, Mlegal. (Courtesy photo)

The last year has been a whirlwind for recruiter Lauren Drake, who is now a partner in Mlegal Group's Washington, D.C., office.

Drake left Major, Lindsey & Africa to join Mlegal Group last September. Then Major Lindsey sued, accusing her of violating a noncompete agreement. In November, the parties settled.

Now, six months and one global pandemic later, Mlegal is formally announcing Drake's arrival, noting she'll be working with prominent legal recruiter Jane Roberts, another Major Lindsey alum who launched Mlegal's D.C. office last year. Drake will also be working alongside former Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor Rachel Nonaka and former Major Lindsey staffer Jessica Ellinger, both of whom joined Mlegal's D.C. office as managing director and knowledge director, respectively.

Drake and Mlegal wouldn't comment on the litigation other than to say a settlement was reached. In terms of the timing of her arrival announcement at Mlegal this week, Drake declined to say whether it was related to the settlement, and instead said, "The time feels right for a number of reasons" and she's able to talk now because the situation with Major Lindsey has resolved.

Drake was particularly ready to talk about all the lateral partner trends she sees—and there have been quite a few. For instance, she said partners who are joining new firms that have had pay cuts are willing to accept the pay cuts or reduced partner draws that have been implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That's because the laterals want to feel like that they're a part of the firm and they know it's going to be temporary, she said. Still, the firms that are hiring high-profile rainmakers have been less affected by the pay cuts, she said, while demand for hiring partners to serve existing client business has slowed down.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

What trends are you noticing in the Washington, D.C., legal market? Is it a lot of bankruptcy and restructuring attorney moves?

Interestingly, we thought we would be seeing a lot of movement among bankruptcy and restructuring attorneys, and we haven't so much because they are so busy. I think many of them are too busy to be thinking about moves right now. Yes, certainly, there are firms that are interested, but that has not been our primary area of activity. … We've seen shifts in the types of lateral partner hiring. The more routine partner one-offs moving from one firm to another, those seem to be largely on hold. Rather, we are seeing many big deals—the big groups that are looking at moving, across practice areas. … As a firm, we might be seeing fewer deals, but much larger deals. It's all net the same amount of activity.

In terms of these group moves, do you have a sense of their motivation? Are they moving because they got a better offer? Or is there a sense that they're fleeing a sinking ship, due to the all the expense trimming?

We are seeing some of these groups—and individuals as well—that have concerns about how their firm is managing through the crisis. But some of this activity was likely underway before the crisis, and I think we've seen an acceleration of it. So [the crisis has accelerated] groups that were thinking about a move or firms that were [considering hiring], for two reasons.

One, all of the Zoom meetings. It used to be, if you were moving a large group to a large firm, there are multiple meetings and multiple cities where our candidates need to interview. … That's all gone. It's all Zoom, it's all virtual. It actually makes it much easier to schedule these interviews in really quick succession. We have made placements already that were virtual end to end. … That's actually pretty fast for the type of work we do. Second, we were wondering if, "Gosh, are people really going to take new jobs without ever having met the people at the other end?" And the answer is yes, they absolutely are.

The difference is almost like a mindset difference. So much about the COVID-19 crisis is changing the way people work, and the way we recruit and the way firms recruit.

It sounds like the crisis is accelerating a decision on a move. Is that what you're seeing?

Absolutely. We're finding that with some of our candidates, some of their court dates and transactions are on hold. They haven't lost their business, but something they were supposed to be working has been delayed now until August, so they now have a little more time to devote to this. That's why I say bankruptcy lawyers are less likely to move because they're so incredibly swamped right now. But other lawyers who traditionally have very busy and successful practices, while they're still having that, their work is being stretched out over a longer period.

Now that you've seen you can have a Zoom meeting, a law firm candidate doesn't necessarily need to go to two to three offices and meet 50 different partners in person. Do you think we'll see more reliance on virtual tools after the crisis?

I do. I would be very surprised if we went back to the same level of intensity of in-person meetings and travel. We've found that everyone has adapted really quickly…. I'm sure we'll go back to in-person meetings, but I'd be surprised if it returned to that level of intensity.

The ongoing crisis has put a lot of firms' finances into a bind. Has that affected the bonuses or financial guarantees that are included as a part of the lateral hiring process?

We're in the middle of trying to figure all of that out. We have candidates now going to firms that have announced 20% partner pay cuts. By and large, candidates who are going to firms where there have been some kind of pay cuts or distributions deferrals, etc., are upfront, saying, "Absolutely, I'm in. I'm one of you now. If you were going to be paying me X, now it's going to be X minus 20%, just like it is with everybody else," in those instances. And please note, that does mean we do have candidates going to firms that are having to make financial adjustments. They are still hiring in a number of instances. The guarantees are different. The comp is different. It's more of a temporary feeling, "We're all in this together, this is what we need to do at this point in time."

Has the pandemic affected the election-year turnover in attorney government ranks that you might see in a normal presidential year?

It has. That is one area where I think there has been a slowdown. Firms are a little more reluctant to make an investment in people coming from the government unless they have a significant title or a practice area that's of great interest to that firm. There is a bit of a slowdown there. We anticipate that will pick up in the fall, regardless of what the election results are. There is always a lot of turnover for government lawyers in the fall, even if an election is in a person's favor.

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