Tag Archives: partner

Want to Hire Your First-Choice Candidate? Don’t Delay!

Relative to 2021’s unprecedented level of lateral hiring, the market has cooled somewhat this year.  But it would be a mistake to conclude that law firms now have the upper hand.  By historical standards, we are still in a supply-constrained market, and there remains imperative for firms to optimize their hiring processes to avoid self-inflicted errors.  The biggest culprit in this category is unnecessary delay: the longer and more drawn out the interview process is, the less likely a firm is to hire its preferred candidate.  As the saying goes, “time kills all deals,” and this rings especially true in the world of legal hiring.

The consequences of delay

Law firms don’t intentionally design an inefficient hiring funnel.  But unless the process is managed with exceptional focus and discipline, it’s all too easy to end up in a bad place.  Small decisions that individually seem reasonable can collectively accumulate into a bloated process that alienates candidates.  Moreover, the longer the process, the greater the risk of losing a top candidate to your competition. 

A good example is the number of interviewers.  Firms have an understandable tendency to solicit input from a large cross-section of the candidate’s potential future colleagues.  On the surface, allowing more lawyers to weigh in seems perfectly reasonable, and even good for the candidate, as it theoretically provides greater insight into firm culture.  But by adding one more interviewer here and another one there, the firm can inadvertently end up with a daunting process that places an excessive burden on the candidate’s time.  Moreover, the larger the group of interviewers, the more difficult it is to compile feedback internally, and the greater the potential for delay.  

Firms tend to underestimate candidates’ propensity to abandon a slow hiring process.  But we at Lateral Link see this happen routinely.  The vast majority of candidates we work with tell us that the most frustrating part of their job search is the long wait after interviews to obtain feedback from a prospective new employer.  If a candidate does not receive feedback within a week or two, they question a firm’s continued interest, and in turn, they lose interest in the firm.  I recently worked with an attorney who was so offended by a firm’s long drawn-out process that they wrote the firm off completely and pursued other opportunities.  By the time the firm got back to me expressing continued interest, I had to sadly let them know the candidate had accepted another role and was off the market.  You snooze, you lose!

The consequences of a poorly managed process tend to extend beyond the individual candidate who goes through it.  Lawyers talk to their friends about their experiences, and firms that drag out the hiring process risk reputational damage.  It’s bad enough losing a candidate in the context of one particular search, but inadvertently dissuading potential future candidates from applying is even worse.  What’s more, a firm is losing money with every hour that goes by with a job vacancy.  As we all know, law firm attorneys are profit generators, so a limited number of attorneys doing the work translates to a ceiling on revenue.  And with attorneys’ hourly rates where they are, that’s literally thousands of dollars in lost revenue every day.  There’s also the negative impact a job vacancy has on a firm’s current employees. When a vacancy has been open for an extended period of time, the extra workload inevitably falls on others within the team.  This added responsibility can lead to burnout, stress, and low morale. That in turn has a direct impact on retention rates as the burned out team members look for greener pastures with increasing urgency.

Tips for improving efficiency

So what can firms do to improve their efficiency and make it more likely that they’re able to hire their first-choice candidate?  It isn’t rocket science.  Think ahead.  Stick to the plan.   Be efficient.  Communicate frequently.  And quickly make the offer.

Sometimes long hiring processes are the result of misalignment in the firm about the type of candidate desired, or even about whether to hire at all.  Any such disagreements must be resolved before launching the recruitment process.  If there isn’t alignment among all relevant stakeholders about what it is the firm needs, don’t post a vacancy as a means of forcing the conversation.  Have the debate internally and come to a collective decision.  Only then should you solicit applications.

At the beginning of the process, map out precisely who the candidate is to meet with and book all interview slots in the interviewers’ calendars.  If there is a high risk of an interviewer not being available in the necessary window, find a substitute interviewer ahead of time.  Don’t let foreseeable delays derail the process.  In addition, avoid the temptation to add extra interviewers partway through.  Sometimes the logic for doing so really is compelling, but this should be an exceptional situation.  Have the discussion upfront about who needs to participate, and stick to the plan.  Then solicit feedback from the interviewers immediately after the interview while the conversations are fresh in their minds. 

If the process is unreasonably long, the firm will lose candidates.  But at the margin, proactive communication can be highly effective in keeping a candidate engaged.  Tell candidates upfront what the process entails and how long it’s expected to take.  If an unexpected complication arises, inform the candidate and/or recruiter promptly.  Give a real explanation for the delay, along with assurances that the firm remains interested, and be sure to check in regularly to keep the candidate warm.  But by no means should you string a candidate along.  Job seekers strongly dislike that, and it can really sour the relationship before it even starts.

Finally, once the interviewers have collectively identified a first-choice candidate, make an offer as soon as you possibly can.  It’s not a problem if the offer has various contingencies, such as conflicts and background checks.  But a fast offer is a critical signal to the candidate that the firm is serious about making the hire.

Take advantage of what you can control

Many elements of the hiring process fall outside a firm’s control.  At the height of the boom in 2021, when mid-level corporate lawyers seemed almost impossible to find, there was no magic wand a firm could wave to increase candidate supply.  But firms do control the efficiency of their hiring process, and making an active effort to improve it can lead to a material improvement in the firm’s recruiting success. One law firm we work with regularly has mastered this process and typically makes associate hiring decisions within a matter of two to three weeks.  They know what they want in a new hire, and when they find it, they don’t delay.  Everyone is busy and no one has time to waste, so fast-tracking the hiring process and making it as efficient as possible will go a long way with prospective employees.  

If your firm or law department has questions about how to improve the lateral hiring process and eliminate some pain points, please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of my Lateral Link colleagues.

More Bang for the Buck: Hiring Lateral Partners In Groups Is Gaining Popularity

Paul Hastings has been doing a lot of hiring lately. Same as many other firms, right? Actually, not quite. Paul Hastings has been in the headlines not for bringing on many new partners, but for hiring partners in groups. In March, the firm poached a group of 43 restructuring attorneys from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, including 18 partners. In May, Paul Hastings brought over a three-partner energy team from Shearman & Sterling. And in June, the firm hired a group of four financial services partners from Buckley.

Paul Hastings is executing this recruiting strategy on a particularly notable scale, but the firm’s appetite for lateral partner group hiring is hardly unique. In February, Reed Smith brought on an 11-attorney real estate finance group, including five partners, who had previously been at Akerman. In April, Norton Rose Fulbright announced the hiring of an 11-lawyer group, including four partners, from Minneapolis litigation boutique Blackwell Burke.

The benefits of a group move are increasingly compelling to both firms and individual partners. At the most basic level, hiring a group of partners gives a firm more bang for the buck. Why settle for one book of business when you can get several? Of course, not all partners are equally valuable, and before hiring a group, a firm will need to become comfortable that each potential partner meets its bar. But broadly speaking, the more partners the firm can hire, the more incremental business it stands to gain.

From a partner perspective, making a lateral move as a group eases the challenge of integration, facilitates client transitions, and strengthens confidence that the new firm will stand by the partner even in more challenging times.

Easier Lateral Partner Integration

Although cultural fit is typically a factor that both firms and lateral candidates take care to assess when discussing a potential lateral move, no two firms are perfectly alike, and integrating into the culture of a new firm can be a challenge. Having some familiar faces around tends to help — after all, it’s a good bet that a group that chooses to move together has an existing successful working relationship. It is easier to integrate a “working group” into the firm’s culture than to integrate lawyers individually: instead of starting afresh with entirely new colleagues, attorneys who arrive in a group may be able to keep many of their existing teams intact.

The lateral partner questionnaires of the partners in the group can be an especially useful tool in curating the lateral partner integration plan. The questionnaires collectively set out a roadmap allowing for each partner (and the partner-to-be) in the group to benefit from the group’s bench strength.

The benefits of more rapid integration tend to be reflected in immediate business development success. The hiring firm is making a bet that a lateral partner will not only bring over existing business but will also use the new platform to attract new clients quickly. When a group of partners moves together, they benefit from immediate cohesion in the new firm setting. As with any move, there will be a learning curve as the newly-arrived partners figure out how to refine their marketing pitches to showcase the new firm’s distinctive capabilities. But with a solid base of longtime colleagues already in place, the refinement is more icing on the cake than a fundamental reworking of the partner’s story. Partners in this situation are poised to compete immediately and successfully for new clients.

Smoother Client Transitions

For both the hiring firm and the moving partner, a critical component of a successful lateral move is transitioning as much of the partner’s existing book of business as possible. That process can be a real test of the partner’s relationship with his or her clients. From a client’s point of view, the decision to move is considerably simpler if it is clear that the client’s matters will be handled at the new firm not just by the same lead partner but also by the same larger team of attorneys. That continuity of the “bench” is highly reassuring.

Long Term Strategic Support and Execution

When a law firm hires a group of partners, associates, and counsels, there is an implicit long-term commitment from the firm to support the integration of the group and the expansion of the group’s practice. A firm that brings in a group is presumably thinking beyond any individual member and is more likely to be intentional about creating a succession plan for the longevity of the practice. This degree of strategic support from the new firm can be especially critical when the group experiences a challenging period. Cutting loose an entire group is more of a black mark than releasing an individual partner in challenging times. So from an individual partner’s perspective, there is valuable security in joining as part of a larger group.