Lateral hiring has become a principal growth strategy. Even a firm that is not expanding needs the occasional lateral hire to maintain the service its clients expect. Most firms will be considering one in the next few years, which makes it worth knowing how to run the process well. Three things matter most:
1. Sell the Firm
A firm recruiting laterals is not only an evaluator. It is also a seller. The firm does have to find the right fit and satisfy itself that the candidate meets its requirements, and the traffic runs both ways. Lateral candidates have options. Why should this one consider your firm? What does it add to her career? How does joining it improve her practice and serve her clients? A firm that can answer those moves candidates in its direction.
2. Keep the Momentum
The process has several steps and each one matters. With busy lawyers on both sides, some delay is inevitable. It is the unexplained delay that does the damage, because silence reads as indifference. A firm that has met a promising candidate, in a meeting that went well on both sides, should come back within a few days with some feedback at a minimum. Weeks of nothing signals disinterest, and the candidate steps back. Lateral hiring runs on communication and on removing the delays that were avoidable.
3. Have Firm Leadership Involved
Firms that excel at lateral hiring have their leadership in the process. Time with the managing partner or a practice group leader tells a candidate that they are a priority, and it carries weight out of all proportion to its length. A few minutes can decide whether someone joins. That level of involvement communicates commitment and respect, and both matter here.
How we run a partner-level search
Making the case for the firm, keeping the process moving, and putting leadership in the room will improve the odds of landing the candidates worth landing. In a competitive field, those three are within any firm’s control.
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