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The Aspiring Lateral: Support Systems

What level of “support” can you expect to receive at your new firm? Will it keep you happy?

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Ed. note: The Aspiring Lateral, a new series from Levenfeld Pearlstein, will analyze a variety of issues surrounding lateral moves, drawing on the firm’s experience in the lateral market as well as the individual experiences of LP attorneys. Today’s post is written by Angela Hickey, LP’s Executive Director and a member of the firm’s Executive and Compensation Committees.

Gladys Knight had the Pips, Han Solo had Chewbacca, and Walter White had Jessie Pinkman. To be successful, you need the right support — and that lesson is as true in legal practice as it is on the Millennium Falcon

Lateral candidates, however, often travel to their new firms alone. How can they tell, ahead of time, whether this new firm will give them the support they need for their practice to flourish? What questions can they ask to discover what their new support system will look like? The first step in getting answers is to define what the oft-used term “support” really means…

To some, the “support” function of a law firm calls to mind seldom-seen, back-office workings like whatever the IT department does to maintain its servers. But the concept goes far beyond the occasional network outage. When laterals think about support — specifically, whether they’re happy with what they’re getting, or whether they need something different — they should consider all of the systems at their firm (and prospective firms) that assist their practices. That includes IT and administrative support, yes, but just as importantly, the strategic layer on top of those details. That strategic layer of support can be thought of in three broad categories:

  • Governance systems: How the firm’s leadership is structured, what the leadership’s vision for the firm is, and how vacancies in leadership are filled.
  • Development systems: How the firm’s attorneys are trained and marketed.
  • Reward systems: How the firm’s attorneys are compensated and promoted.

Prospective laterals should carefully consider these support systems at any firm they are evaluating, keeping in mind a couple of things. First, while it’s easy for firms to talk a good game on any of the above, an effective support structure depends on execution. Any firm a lateral talks to may have a strategic plan at the ready, but lateral candidates should dig deeper. Ask what specific action the firm has taken to implement its strategic plan, and other questions that test whether it is putting its proverbial money where its mouth is.

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Second, the governance, development, and reward systems at any given firm are highly interconnected. If a firm professes to emphasize teamwork, yet has a compensation system oriented strongly toward individual performance, you should see a red flag.

The more operational aspects of “support,” too, can reveal a lot about a firm. The following are three of many support-related questions that will give a lateral some indication if a firm will be a good fit.

  • What is your marketing strategy for me or my practice group? If they don’t have one, run. If they do, learning what the announcement looks like, who it will go to, and what partners will accompany you to visit clients will give you valuable information about how you will be supported at a prospective new firm.
  • What kind of tech support should I reasonably expect? Whether or not a firm is aggressively using technology to enhance its clients’ experience should be a significant concern for laterals, and if a prospective new firm is not at least paying its lawyers’ cell phone bills, that’s a tip off that it isn’t valuing technology and connectedness enough in today’s world.
  • How does the firm handle its billing and collection cycle? It’s not the sexiest topic, but it’s one all laterals should explore. If a potential lateral has good billing habits and her new firm doesn’t (or vice versa), stressful conflict is sure to arise. Here again, pay less attention to lip service than specifics on the firm’s work-in-progress and accounts-receivable aging. They will offer the best insight into the efficiency of a firm’s billing cycle.

There are certainly more questions to ask when it comes to support systems, but the above are a good start. And if laterals consider how a firm’s responses complement its strategic governance, development, and reward systems, they’ll begin to get a clear idea of the level of “support” they can expect to receive, and whether it will keep them happy in the long term.

Disclosure: This series is sponsored by Levenfeld Pearlstein, which is an ATL advertiser.

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Chicago-based Levenfeld Pearlstein (LP) was born of the desire to create a different kind of law firm. While many firms promote a “value proposition” of high quality work, responsiveness, efficiency and reasonable fees, to LP, those are just the basics of doing good work for clients. LP’s focus is building business relationships with clients as trusted strategic advisors who understand their clients’ business and industry inside and out, seeking legal solutions that support the client’s long-term business strategy as well as short-term needs. LP’s top talent and entrepreneurial setting translate into the sophisticated skills and resources of a big law firm in a more manageable environment.

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