The Lateral Partner Process: Three Perspectives

According to The American Lawyer, fully 40% of partners in the AmLaw 200 firms will move laterally at least once as partners. This is an astonishing statistic, since lateral partner movement was virtually unheard of a generation ago. Freed from the stigma that once haunted a partner who abandoned his partnership, today's law partners tend to be pragmatists who no longer view their firms as homes for life. Instead, they see them as vehicles to drive their businesses to higher levels. These days, law firm lateral recruitment has become big business. An entire lateral partner recruiting industry ' one of the country's youngest professions ' has emerged to help guide candidates and law firms through the complicated, and often emotionally charged, business of moving partners. In this article, we take a brief look at lateral partner recruitment from the different perspectives of the law firms, the candidates and the recruiters.