Steven Rushing didn’t set out to become a legal recruiter. He set out to become an IP attorney, and he was a good one. Somewhere between the boutique IP shops and the full-service BigLaw floors though, he realized something: he was more interested in the careers of the lawyers around him than in the practice of law itself.
Seven years ago, he made the move to Lateral Link. Today, as a Principal focused on IP and a national practice spanning New York to Seattle to Dallas, he’s built a reputation for something that isn’t always associated with recruiting: honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable.
In this conversation, Steven talks about the placements that took a year to close, the advice most lawyers don’t want to hear, and what he’s learned about the legal industry that you can only learn from the outside looking in.
How would you describe your career path and how your practice has evolved into what it is today?
I started out as an engineering student at the University of Florida and went to law school planning to practice intellectual property law. After Vanderbilt, I worked at several different types of BigLaw firms, from a highly specialized IP boutique to large, full-service firms. That gave me a pretty broad view of the legal market early in my career. I saw how different firms handled training, staffing, client relationships and associate development, and how much your experience can depend on the platform and the people around you.
At a certain point, I realized I was more interested in the business and career side of the legal industry than I was in continuing to practice. I liked talking to lawyers about their careers, understanding what they were trying to build and helping them think through their options.
Recruiting gave me a way to use my legal background, my knowledge of the IP market and the relationship-building skills I had developed before and during law school.
I started at a very well-known recruiting firm and got great experience there. Eventually, though, I wanted to be on a broader national platform with deeper relationships across the top firms and companies in the country. That led me to Lateral Link, where I have now been for seven years and have grown from Senior Director to Principal. Today, my practice is really about helping lawyers make smart career decisions. Sometimes that means making a move. Sometimes it means telling someone they should stay exactly where they are.
What’s the proudest moment you’ve had as a recruiter?
The placements I am proudest of are usually not the easiest ones. Over the years, I have worked with several really strong lawyers who did not fit neatly into the kind of profile firms usually ask for. Maybe their experience was unusual. Maybe they had a geographic limitation. Maybe they were looking for something very specific and were not willing to move just for the sake of moving. Some of those searches took nine months or even a year.
What I am proud of is sticking with them, continuing to look and eventually finding the kind of opportunity that actually made sense for them. The best part is seeing that they are still there years later and doing well. To me, that is the real measure of whether a placement was successful. It is not just whether someone accepted an offer. It is whether the move still looks like the right decision several years afterward.
What skills do you rely on most in your day-to-day work?
Probably honesty more than anything else. I try to be very direct with both candidates and law firms. I would rather tell someone something they may not love hearing than give them an answer that is easier in the moment but does not actually help them. Sometimes that means telling a candidate that an opportunity is not as good as it sounds. Sometimes it means telling them that their expectations are unrealistic, that their résumé needs work or that they are not interviewing as well as they could be.
The same is true with firms. I would rather have an honest conversation about why a search is not working than continue sending candidates who are clearly not going to be the right fit.
I want the people I work with to know that when I say something positive, I mean it. And when I raise a concern, I am not doing it because I am trying to push them toward a particular outcome.
That trust is probably the most important part of what I do.
How has your understanding of the legal industry evolved over time?
When you are an associate, you mostly understand the legal industry through the lens of your own firm, your own practice group and the handful of partners you work with. Recruiting gives you a much wider view. You get to see how different firms actually operate, how they make money, how they divide credit, how they evaluate associates and partners, and why certain people advance while others do not.
You also see how differently the exact same lawyer can be viewed by two different firms. That has probably been the biggest change in my understanding of the industry. Talent and hard work obviously matter, but they are not the only things that matter. Sponsorship matters. Practice economics matter. Timing matters. Client exposure matters. Whether the right partners actually need someone with your experience matters. A very talented lawyer can still find themselves in a situation where the platform around them is limiting their growth.
A big part of my job is helping lawyers figure out whether they are dealing with a temporary frustration or a more fundamental problem. Sometimes the answer is to stay and handle things differently. Sometimes the answer is that the firm simply may not be able to give them what they need next.
Can you share a moment that reminded you why you love what you do?
The moments that stand out usually happen after the placement is over. It might be someone calling me months later and saying they are finally getting the kind of work they had been asking for, that a partner is genuinely invested in them or that they are starting to manage matters and speak directly with clients. Those are the things that make the job rewarding.
A good lateral move is not going to make BigLaw easy. The hours may still be long. The expectations may still be high. Every firm has its own issues. But the right move can make sure that all of that effort is actually building toward something. Better experience. More responsibility. Stronger relationships. A clearer path forward. Helping someone move from simply working hard to actually building the career they want is probably the best part of what I do.
What advice would you give to an attorney who is considering making a lateral move?
Be more open-minded about taking a conversation than you are about accepting an offer. Those are two completely different things. Talking to a firm does not mean you have to join it. It simply gives you more information. When you are making a decision that could affect the next ten or twenty years of your career, spending 30 minutes learning about a credible opportunity is not a very big investment.
I think a lot of lawyers are too quick to dismiss firms based on Vault rankings, general reputation or something a friend heard about a completely different practice group. Those things may matter, but they are not the whole story. What really matters is who you would work with, what kind of responsibility you would get, whether the practice is growing, whether there are people who will support you and whether the move will make you more valuable over time.
You should not interview somewhere you know you would never join. But outside of that, I think many lawyers limit themselves based on assumptions that are not always grounded in reality.
Some of the best placements I have made started with a candidate saying, “I had never really thought about that firm.”
What drew you to Lateral Link and how does the platform support the way you run your practice now?
What drew me to Lateral Link was its reputation with both lawyers and law firms. When I start a conversation with a candidate or a firm, I do not have to spend time explaining who Lateral Link is or trying to establish the credibility of the platform. The name is already known, and that allows us to get into the substance much faster. That matters because my practice is national. I may be speaking with a candidate in Miami, New York or Washington, D.C., and a firm in Seattle, Dallas, California or somewhere else entirely. Lateral Link gives me the reach and relationships to operate that way.
It also gives me access to a great network of colleagues and market information. No recruiter can personally know every firm, office and practice across the country. Being part of a national platform means I can combine my own relationships and judgment with the broader knowledge of the firm. For candidates, that means the search is not limited to whatever opportunities happen to sit inside one recruiter’s immediate network. We can look more broadly and focus on what actually makes sense for their career.
