Our team works with law firms on growth, and has advised them on a number of different strategies. Each has its advantages, and each, executed deliberately, can support consistent growth.
1. Mutually exclusive recruiting engagements
Exclusivity between a law firm and a search firm can be highly effective, provided the search firm has the requisite expertise and the exclusivity cuts both ways. Put differently, an exclusive engagement works when both sides are committed to the other.
2. Lateral Candidate Marketing
Most law firms know how to develop and maintain a client roster, and few have ever thought about developing a pool of lateral candidates the same way. A marketing strategy aimed at laterals is a separate discipline, and it is worth having if the firm intends to grow laterally.
3. Identifying differentiators and deficiencies
Most law firms look alike from the outside, and each has its own advantages: the compensation model, the leadership structure, the way client relationships are managed. Named plainly, those differentiators show why a particular attorney or group belongs in the firm’s growth plan. A firm should identify its deficiencies with the same candor, and establish whether each is real or only perceived, so that it can repair what would otherwise repel strong lateral candidates.
If your firm is in a growth mindset, treat these as a starting point. The results of getting it right tend to last for years.