A hungry stomach has no ears. – La Fontaine

The art of partner recruiting requires, above all, patience. While you may feel pressure to expand revenue streams, remember that high turnover is worse than slow growth. Developing a deliberate approach to recruiting that considers your firm's culture, client base, service gaps and economic structure will help avoid such an outcome.

A Path to Growth

Strategic lateral acquisitions can spur both organic growth and practice area expansion. By diversifying your areas of practice, you bring greater value to your clients, develop new revenue sources and protect against the impacts of recession through practices countercyclical to your core areas when markets shift. Further, laterals engender opportunities to cross-sell and cross-service clients.

Recruiting

Like most of our strongest relationships, we meet great people through the people we know. Therefore, look first to your trusted colleagues for referrals. Candidates from a referral pool tend to have the highest rates of success and as a bonus, no recruiter fee! However, lateral recruiting cannot depend on referrals alone.

Developing a strong relationship with the most effective recruiters will pay dividends for years to come. Educate them on your firm, keep them updated on the changing needs of your business, discuss changes to the economy and get their insights on the market. Most importantly, stay top of mind with them through tailored newsletters, periodic meetings or calls. Share successes with them and meaningful firm developments that candidates might find attractive.

Interviews and Due Diligence

Although it is important to develop and maintain a consistent approach to interviewing and vetting candidates, keep in mind that each candidate will have unique circumstances and one candidate's journey will rarely mirror that of another's. Nevertheless, a few guiding principles can be helpful. First, keep the momentum going. If your process takes too long you risk fatiguing the candidate and can lose a viable opportunity to another suitor. Second, do not skip the lateral questionnaire. No matter how active a practice a candidate may have, a complete and thorough LPQ is a must. Third, listen to their story at every stage of their career and understand how noteworthy moments have impacted their current and future practice. Finally, your process should offer the candidate the most holistic view of the firm and what it has to offer them.

As part of the screening process, emphasis is often on the candidate's economic match with the firm. However, vetting should be equally focused on interpersonal compatibility with the practice group and synergies with other groups for cross-selling and service. One-on-one interviews remain the best way to facilitate substantive conversations on these points. While some gravitate towards the fishbowl approach, multiple attorneys conducting an interview simultaneously is rarely productive.

Cue the Awkward Silence

Inevitably, during the interviewing process you will note some discrepancy or issue that requires a potentially uncomfortable conversation. This is often centered around finances, e.g., when you're really trying to verify and validate a candidate's book of business. Some candidates worry they may be sharing too much information while others may be masking deficits. Nonetheless, you must push through this line of questioning. Dedicate one meeting to finances with a stated agenda so they can prepare. Items to be discussed should include a draft business plan, several years of financials, and specific details as to any material changes in their book over the last year.

Beware of Red Flags

Consider this as a standard disclaimer: Every candidate is different and red flags are simply things that should make you pause but none individually should necessarily be a deal-breaker. That being said, a few items that should make you sit up and take notice: emphasis on projections versus past performance; frequent movement; malpractice claims or disciplinary action; or rude, curt or other terse behavior. Finally, check your gut. The good old-fashioned gut check can get lost in a world conditioned to rationalize behavior, but developing a strong gut check is just as pertinent as any other interviewing technique.

Onboarding—It's Personal

The true key to success in lateral recruiting is how well they integrate into your firm, which begins with the onboarding experience. A senior member of your management team should lead this stage of the lateral's journey. This can be your firm administrator, executive director or HR director—depending on how your firm is structured. Their objective is to ensure a seamless assimilation of the candidate into the firm.

Transitioning to a new firm can be one of the most challenging times in an attorney's career, so endeavor to make them feel seen, heard and valued through their transition. Assembling an onboarding team to meet with the lateral once they accept the offer is an effective way of covering all key areas affected by a transition. The onboarding team will work to understand the unique needs of the lateral's practice, learn about their clients, provide substantive guidance on conflicts, client consents, marketing communications and more. Right down to hanging their family photos, laterals ought to feel welcomed and cared for throughout this experience.

Beyond the First Day

An often overlooked but vital step in a successful partner integration is checking in with your newest member periodically over the months that follow the transition. From client transfers to training to cross-selling meetings with other members of the firm, work to make sure that your new partner is becoming deeply embedded in the fabric of the firm. Additionally, be certain that the lateral fully assimilates into the practice group. Lastly, get feedback on their experience and share it with the transition team to improve your process for future recruiting efforts.

Alan Tarter is the managing partner of Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, a full-service law firm. Tanya Duprey is the firm administrator and past president of the New York City Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators. For more information about the firm, please visit www.tarterkrinsky.com.