Group Laterals May Offer Better Chance of Success

Ask any managing partner, recruitment director or legal recruiter about lateral recruiting and they likely will tell you just how hard it is to successfully complete a lateral partner move. It’s a process that can often take months and sometimes even years to complete, and the investments made by firms can be significant. Yet, this does not stop many of the top firms from continuing to seek that Holy Grail partner who may be out there to help elevate their firm. A successful lateral partner, group or merger can change the course of a firm for years to come. As a legal recruiter in Philadelphia for almost 10 years now, I know firsthand the difficulty of completing these deals and the reasons why they are or are not successful. More and more, I am seeing that the deals that have the best chance of long-term success are the deals that involve not just a single lateral partner move, but a group of attorneys making the move together.

From the lateral’s perspective, some of the reasons to make the transition as a group may seem obvious, and some less so. When a lateral is transitioning, he or she has to make sure not only to take care of himself or herself but also his or her clients. The active piece of litigation or merger you are working on never stops because you decide to make the transition to a new firm. Laterals who bring not only other partners but also associates, paralegals and legal support staff have a leg up to help ensure that this transition is as smooth as possible. One lateral partner who made a large group move pointed out that moving with colleagues, people who you work well with, allows a much smoother transition in terms of client service. You can maintain continuity on your active files and not have to bring new lawyers and paralegals up to speed at the client’s expense, the partner said. The comfortability factor of continuing to work with people with whom you have built relationships over years and can continue to do so in a new environment cannot be overstated. Learning new processes and the structure of a new firm can be a daunting task, and while firms are often wise to assign other partners to mentor new partners and help them in that transition, that tension is still there.