The State Of The Job Market

It's time to clear up some misconceptions about the state of the market for attorney jobs.

Michael Allen

Michael Allen

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Michael Allen Michael Allen is the CEO of Lateral Link. He is based in the Los Angeles office and focuses exclusively on Partner and General Counsel placements for top firms and companies. Prior to founding Lateral Link in 2006, he worked as an attorney at both Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Irell & Manella LLP. Michael graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, San Diego before earning his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Given the recent news of some firms laying off associates and others de-equitizing partners, I want to clear up some misconceptions about the state of the market for attorney jobs.  I sourced most of our data from Leopard Solutions and our internal database, both of which I feel are the most accurate indicators available in our industry.

  • The “Associate” Job Market at the Am Law 200.
    • There are currently just north of 3,000 active “associate”-level job openings stateside and abroad, broken down as follows: Northeast, 709; South, 645; West, 643; Midwest, 321; and International, 702.   That’s like a job balance sheet for the Am Law 200.  Despite rumors of a few layoffs here and there, there is a glut of active openings for associates at the major law firms stateside and abroad.
    • Furthermore, over the prior rolling 12 months, we have seen over 5,100 “associate”-level laterals into the Am Law 200 law firms. That’s like a job profit and loss statement.   As for some perspective, we saw around 5,500 associate-level lateral moves during the same period in the prior year.   In short, we are still in a bull market for associates, and our current state of the market is not far from that of last year.  Even the practice area breakdowns are about the same in the following order of size — litigation (1,600 of the 5,100); corporate (1,280 of the 5,100); L&E and IP (each respectively around 500 of the 5,100); and real estate (300 of the 5,100).   The remaining practice areas account for a much smaller number of the total lateral associates.  These numbers are comparable to the same period last year as well.
  • The “Partner” Job Market at the Am Law 200.
    • We have seen roughly the same number of “partner”-level candidates move in the prior rolling 12 months as we saw in the same period last year — roughly 1,900. As for the practice area breakdowns, here are the stats — litigation (580 of the 1,900); corporate (415 of the 1,900); IP (197 of the 1,900); real estate (132 of the 1,900); and last but not least, L&E (129 of the 1,900).   The remaining practice areas also account for a much smaller number of the total lateral partners.
    • My non-numeric observation is that the partner market is really broken up into three buckets: a) the major players; b) the middle market players; and c) the value players. In the major player bucket, we see increasing rates, increasing profitability, increasing leverage, and increasing compensation.   These firms typically control large deals and large litigation matters.   In Los Angeles, for example, I would put at the most 10 firms in this bucket (if I were being extremely generous).   In the last bucket, the value players, these firms sell their services based on competitive pricing (and even discount their rates for bulk work such as insurance panel counsel and the like).   It’s analogous to shopping at Costco instead of Whole Foods.   For this bucket of firms, life is the most competitive on all fronts.   We see the most movement here (mostly within the same bucket as opposed to climbing the ladder).   In the middle market bucket, we see the vast majority of the Am Law 200.   This bucket is getting bigger and bigger for a variety of reasons but mainly because the major players are shrinking, which means partners from the major player buckets are either finding themselves more competitive in the middle tier because of pricing or they have been escorted out to accommodate the major players’ thirst to keep profits and leverage high with fewer highly compensated partners to feed.

What does all this mean?  Things are not simple and transparent.   Around a decade ago when I started Lateral Link, the market dynamics were a bit clearer.    Now, with so much lateral movement and practice-area sensitivity to pricing and conflicts, it really takes an experienced student of the industry to sift through the things that matter.   The one trend that we see continue to stick is the importance of the personal brand over the law firm brand, and that means that every attorney should really focus on how they differentiate themselves from the pack, regardless of where they hang their shingle.


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.