An April article in The American Lawyer entitled “How to Hire a Home Run Lateral? Look at Their Stats!” described how law firms are beginning to use billing data, court records, personality tests and other sources of data to build a model that can predict the success of lateral partners in a new firm, comparing the process to the methods highlighted in the movie Moneyball.
Considering the success rate of laterals, which can hover below 30 percent (according to a study by ALM Legal Intelligence and my own company, Group Dewey Consulting, entitled “Surmounting The Lateral Partner Hiring Challenge: Lessons Learned, Best Practices and Tools for Success”), it is no wonder that law firms would seek a way to improve their investment returns. However, the process described in the article leads me to think law firms are making the same false assumptions they make when they hire attorneys based on the highest law school rank and academic performance but expect them all to be strong business generators. GPA is not a reliable predictor of client relationship skills.
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