5 Signs You Need To Make A Lateral Move

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts on lateral moves from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Ata Farhadi is a Director of associate, partner, and in-house recruiting at Lateral Link. He recruits for Am Law 200 firms, smaller boutiques, and corporations ranging from financial institutions to major entertainment and media outlets. As a Director at Lateral Link, Ata offers market analysis, résumé advice, interview strategy and related services to attorneys across the United States, Europe and Asia. Ata is also a proud alumnus of Pembroke College, Oxford, and the University of Southern California (Go Trojans!) and is always happy to hear from alumni of either school.

Experiencing a tidal wave of recruiter calls, all selling you the world, while balancing 2500 billable hours and whatever might be left of your personal life isn’t the best recipe for peace of mind (as you well know). Just as importantly, it leaves precious little time to reflect seriously on the long-term trajectory of your career and a question of the utmost significance in today’s increasingly mobile associate market: “When do I make my lateral move?” The recruiters here at Lateral Link are intimately familiar with the common issues plaguing lateraling attorneys, and although any good lateral move must marry career aspirations with personal considerations, generally speaking, we think associates should look out for five circumstances indicating it is time to make a change:

1) Inadequate Experience At Your Current Firm. Perhaps the most alarming realization an associate can come to is that after three years of work, he or she has not gained the skills necessary to keep them marketable in an increasingly competitive lateral market. So if you’ve been feeling like a glorified paralegal of late, it’s time to move on. The vast majority of positions available are — perhaps unsurprisingly, given our five-year proximity to the downturn — mid-level opportunities. These jobs are characterized most often by a requirement that the associate be able to “hit the ground running.” Finance associates, for example, will want more than a passing familiarity with central loan documents, M&A associates will want experience with purchase and sale agreements as well as ancillary documentation, litigation associates will want to have tackled depositions and substantive motions, and all associates will need to have had strong client contact in order to beat out competition for top jobs at the best Am Law firms.

Inadequate Experience: Your Firm May Be Too Highly Leveraged

Many associates upon graduation must make the choice between two sometimes conflicting types of firms: those which are the most prestigious, and those whose names carry relatively less weight but which are nonetheless excellent firms offering more immediate hands-on experience. An associate’s experience is more often than not determined by his or her group than it is by his or her firm. That said, many of the most prestigious firms contain several groups in which the issue of high leverage (many multiples of associates per partner and several “layers” of associate seniority) is prevalent and militates against attempts to stand out from the crowd.

There are many possible negative symptoms of this high leverage. Paucity of client contact, paucity of partner contact, reduced experience as workloads are distributed across a range of seniorities and work is constantly reviewed to perfection, inadequate relationship building opportunities, increased associate turnover, and resulting crushing hours are just a few. In the current bull associate market, any one of these conditions would be sufficient reason to consider alternative opportunities, and I and all of our recruiters have experience helping associates make such a transition.

Inadequate Experience: Paucity of Client Contact

High leverage is essentially a function of your firm’s practice and most often stems from the representation of large or otherwise extremely wealthy repeat clients with whom partners rather than associates will have the most contact. Look at the seniors above you to get a sense of when you might expect to develop daily client contact. If your firm is highly leveraged and competition for responsibility is high, do you want to take the gamble and wait until a lateral move is less likely to work? Peak marketability is between your 3^rd and 5^th year, and you will want to have gained some contact experience you can take away with you by that time.

Inadequate Experience: Paucity of Partner Contact

Clients concerned less about cost than about perfection often give partners the luxury of spending significant billable time crossing Ts and dotting Is that at other (still very highly respected) firms would be spent mentoring you. In an environment where merit is only a part of the overall equation, mentorship is a huge leg-up for aspiring partners, and its benefit cannot be overestimated.

Sometimes this issue is not a question of leverage or clientele and more simply a result of firm structure and geographic distribution. Relationships with key partners can be severely hampered when associates work in satellite or otherwise “remote” offices far away from the partners who source their work, and although email is ever present, nothing beats a face-to-face connection with one’s colleagues. Under such circumstances, our associate candidates have reported that training becomes difficult and mentorship often an impossibility.

Inadequate Experience: Paucity of Substantive Experience

As one of seven or eight associates working on a document draft, it is not uncommon to find yourself focusing on only a small piece of the puzzle, whether of a deal or a dispute. Once your piece is done, it may need to be reviewed several times by more senior attorneys before it even reaches a partner’s eyes. Under such circumstances, you may never develop an adequate sense of the flow of a case or corporate transaction, or the confidence to handle a matter from start to finish — skills which are in demand in the current market at the mid-level. More importantly, the longer you wait in your career, the higher the cost — which will easily outweigh the benefits of a prestigious firm name by the time you are in your fourth and fifth years. Even as a third-year associate, it is quite possible to find opportunities which will throw you in the deep end as the sole drafter on a brief or other document, working directly with a well-respected partner. Fewer drafts, fewer layers, and not only more client and partner contact, but an exponential increase in the level of your experience, position you well both for internal promotion and in-house opportunities.

Inadequate Experience: Turnover and Associate Numbers

A word about turnover: If you have noticed that the associates above you tend to disappear in relatively quick succession, it’s likely not a coincidence. Turnover is a major recruiting headache for many law firms and you can tell which in a number of ways. One indicator is summer class numbers. Summer classes at firms with high turnover tend to dwarf (relative to office numbers) those at other firms, for example, as the management is aware a vast majority of associates will drop out within two to three years. Many of these firms are the “best of the best” and working for them is an excellent start to your career of which you should be rightly proud. Our advice is simply to be aware of the realities operating at your firm and in your group. If a pattern of turnover emerges, it is wise to at least be prepared and discuss alternatives with an experienced recruiter.

2) Fleeing a Stagnating Practice. Practices don’t grow and thrive on their own, and in Biglaw often require the backing of key partners from across the firm. Business development initiatives, partner and associate hiring, sources of work and workflow: all these are worth keeping an eye on to determine the value your firm places on your practice in your specific region. If years of stagnation seem to be the norm (and I’d advise your not waiting “years”), then it’s certainly time to look elsewhere. A lack of investment in your practice may very well lead to many of the other negative conditions listed above and is not a situation to which you should be resigned. At any given time there may be several firms focused on building your practice of interest in your region, and any recruiter worth their salt will know which, so do not be afraid to ask. Positioning yourself well in a growing group may be just the thing you need to take your career to the next level.

3) Inadequate Pay And Bonuses. With the gargantuan price of student loans today, adequate compensation in the form of both base pay and bonuses is non-negotiable for most. Add to that the fact that many young lawyers plan on marriage, home-buying, and other major life events which require (let’s face it) money, and you have the perfect storm. Long hours, especially, deserve to be rewarded with higher pay, and whether your firm is highly profitable and denying you a fair bonus, or struggling and offering the same, in today’s market there will always be opportunities available at firms with respectable compensation. So whether you are interested in finding out pay at peer firms in the Am Law 200 or looking at top of the market opportunities, simply drop us a line and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.

4) Taking The Road To In-House. Experiences in-house vary quite significantly and it’s not always rainbows and unicorns. That said, in-house work tends to offer increasing stability and the opportunity to participate in business decisions, which is the goal of many associates I speak to.

So… how to snag that in-house job? First, you’ll need contact with the right clients and decision-makers. See a running theme here? Just one more example of how important relationships can be. Certain firms are known for work in certain industries, with certain companies, and so on. Many of these work on a lean-staffing, low-leverage model and will very quickly expose you to your ideal in-house employers. Many associates receive multiple in-house job offers during their time at such firms, and the world really can be your oyster, if you play your cards right.

5) The “Time” Is Right. I speak to many associates for periods ranging from several months to two years who are vaguely aware of an inner desire to find greener pastures but who, uncertain of what is a normal experience for law firm associates and what they are entitled to expect from their jobs, are unwilling to pull the trigger until in some cases it’s too late in their careers or rare opportunities have been filled. Don’t let this happen to you. Instead, give some thought to your career aspirations and the type of workplace you’re interested in and ask recruiters who call you for example placements they have made in such groups. Your recruiter is more than a salesperson, he or she is also a source of valuable information and one incentivized to spend his/her professional time researching and collating inside info on the market using professional and even personal contacts for your benefit. The best recruiters will know that long-term mutually beneficial relationships are the most worthwhile, so do not be afraid to engage intelligently those who call you. At the very least, you’ll quickly determine the wheat from the chaff (those able to call on valuable resources to help you navigate the market most effectively) and will know precisely who to call when the time comes.

With the shifting landscape of the legal market, it can be difficult to determine both when and where to lateral. My colleagues and I at Lateral Link are happy to help you make an informed decision on your career.

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Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.