A book by Richard Brock · Founder, OnBoard Legal
Win the Talent Game: A Lateral-Hiring Playbook for Law Firms
Most firms treat recruiting like a chore: a seat to fill, a hand-off, a line item. Win the Talent Game makes the opposite argument — that lateral hiring is the fastest, most reliable way your firm grows revenue and profit.
It’s written by Richard Brock, a practicing attorney who has spent more than 20 years in legal recruiting and founded OnBoard Legal. He wrote it after watching firm after firm lose laterals they should have landed — for reasons that were entirely fixable.
82% of offers extended by OnBoard’s client firms are accepted. · Proud member of NALSC.
Recruiting is offense, not a chore
Here’s the premise the book is built on: in business, you’re either growing or dying. Organic growth is slow — too slow when you have clients with urgent matters and real opportunities sitting in front of you right now.
A single lateral partner can bring revenue with them on day one. That makes recruiting your most direct lever for growth, which means it deserves to be run like a strategy, not delegated like an errand.
Brock’s frame is blunt: a lateral hire isn’t filling a seat. It’s a corporate acquisition. You evaluate it the way you’d weigh buying a business — is it accretive, is it strategic, what’s the return? Read the page that way, and the whole conversation about cost changes. Recruiting stops looking like an expense and starts looking like the growth capital it actually is.
Who wrote it — and why you should care
Richard Brock isn’t a career salesperson who wandered into legal. He’s an attorney who has spent more than two decades placing lawyers and advising firms on how they actually grow.
Along the way he built OnBoard Legal — a retained, selective recruiting firm with nationwide reach, and, frankly, a different kind of recruiting firm than most of the ones you’ve dealt with. No contingent churn. No spray-and-pray résumés. When you think about the recruiters who’ve cold-called you before, OnBoard is not that.
Win the Talent Game is the distillation of what he’s seen work over those 20-plus years — and the avoidable mistakes he’s watched cost firms the candidates they wanted most.
What’s inside Win the Talent Game
Frameworks you can use in your next partner conversation — not theory. Here are the ideas firm leaders tend to underline.
The signature framework
The Three Cs: cash, culture, camaraderie
What actually lands a lateral. Cash comes first — a lawyer rarely moves unless the financial opportunity is clearly better, and much of that comes down to how a firm credits originations, not just the headline number.
Culture is the second factor. Laterals walk away from more money over negativity, selfishness, or secrecy, and they’re drawn to firms that run on courtesy, transparency, and teamwork.
Camaraderie — real professional friendship — is what closes the gap. Cash is king. Culture and camaraderie are what get the deal signed.
Why lawyers actually move
Compensation systems, transparency, rate flexibility, client conflicts, and a platform that lets a book keep growing. Money matters — but it’s rarely the whole story.
The growth taxonomy
Name the strategic reason and you sharpen the play: pure growth, geographic expansion, practice-area depth, superstars, and client acquisition.
Group hires move the needle
A group brings more revenue and is far more likely to bring the clients with it — because few people are left behind to fight to keep the business.
Your firm is selling, too
Firms forget they’re the seller, move too slowly, and show up with no compelling reason for the lawyer to leave. Time kills every deal.
Be a place talent wants
The firms that win laterals are simply worth joining. Leadership and culture do the recruiting long before you ever make the first call.
An investment, not an expense
Treat recruiting spend like the growth capital it is, and the math changes. The right hire pays for the search many times over.
In business, you’re either growing or dying — and lateral hiring is how firms choose growth.
The central argument of Win the Talent Game
Who should read it
Managing partners & firm leadership
If you’re weighing whether recruiting belongs in your growth strategy — or whether to engage a recruiter on a retained basis — this gives you the framework to decide and the language to lead the conversation at the partner table.
Hiring partners & recruiting committees
A clear way to evaluate laterals like the acquisitions they are: accretive or not, strategic or not, and worth the speed it takes to close before someone else does.
Lawyers considering a move
What actually transfers when you leave, why firms compete for you, and how to read the Three Cs before you sign — so your next firm is the right fit, not just the next call.
Go deeper
Grab the book in print or digital through the official Win the Talent Game book page, or read more about how OnBoard approaches lateral recruiting, merger services, and in-house placements. When you’re ready to put the playbook to work, you can talk to our team about a retained search.
Read the book. Then let’s talk about your next hire.
The book gives you the playbook. Putting it to work is where we come in — a retained, selective search built around what your firm is actually trying to become.
