Kristina Marlow
Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts on lateral moves from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Kristina Marlow is a Senior Director at Lateral Link, where she focuses on advising and placing attorneys in the Washington, DC legal market.
Chances are you got where you are by keeping your head down and working hard. You got into the right schools, which led to the right law firm. And when you arrived, you kept your head down, billing the necessary number of hours.
Chances are — at some point — you’ll raise your head and look around. Maybe you’ll realize that you don’t want to work at a law firm forever. Maybe you’ll realize that you do want to work at a law firm, but that the one you’re at isn’t “right” for you long term. Or maybe the firm will let you know that you are not “right” for partnership. And perhaps only then will you realize that simply keeping your head down and working hard wasn’t enough….
This time of year, after bonuses have been collected and partnership decisions announced, attorneys who want to explore their options reach out to recruiters. Here’s what I would tell you, based on my decade of recruiting primarily associate and counsel-level attorneys in DC:
If you are a junior associate who ultimately wants to make partner but are not at a firm with partnership prospects, you should make a lateral move while you are still marketable. Any moves at this time in your career should position you to reach your long-term goal. By the end of your fifth year, you should be at the firm where you want to make a run for partner so that the firm has plenty of time to evaluate your partnership prospects.
If you are a more senior associate or counsel, a lateral move within a major market like DC — while certainly not impossible — will be difficult without portable business, especially if you are a litigator. You may wonder why would a firm be reluctant to bring you on as a senior associate, counsel position, or “service partner,” or even at a more junior level. This comes as a shock to many experienced attorneys, who assume that their years of work have made them more desirable, not less. But the reality is a firm will rarely hire a senior attorney who does not have portable business (How often do you see a job posting for a seventh- or eighth-year general litigation associate?!?) The main reason is the pyramid-shaped Biglaw business model, which depends on the attorneys at the top to bring in business. The firm needs you to bring enough business with you to keep yourself busy.
Exceptions do exist…. Firms may need to fill a “hole” that cannot be serviced by its current attorneys — a need that may have arisen from the departure of a highly specialized attorney, the cross-selling needs of a new client, or the development of a new practice. Specifically, firms pursue very high-level, high-profile attorneys who are leaving the government even though, by virtue of their current employer, they do not have any portable business. These senior attorneys have established reputations that all but guarantee that business will follow (aka “the Eric Holder exception”). The same tends not to be true for lower-level attorneys unless they have formulated a realistic plan to leverage their government service into business. Or, a firm may pursue a marquis-name partner to head up a new practice. For example, Jenner & Block hired Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security, to start the firm’s new privacy and information governance practice. Also, pursuing a senior attorney in a niche practice may allow a firm to expand its offerings to existing clients.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Formulate a Plan B so that if you don’t make partner, you won’t find yourself without options. Among the steps you should take:
- Conduct regular evaluations of your career and goals to determine whether you should make a change. If lateraling to an equivalent firm is not an option, you can consider (1) moving to a smaller firm or relocating to a market where your expertise will be more valued; (2) going in-house (although opportunities for general litigators may be limited); (3) working for the government (although federal hiring may be frozen); or taking a job at which a JD is preferred but not required (like legal recruiting; we’re hiring!)
- Work to learn new skills and stay current on legal market developments;
- Keep your résumé up-to-date;
- Find an established partner to serve as your mentor/sponsor through the partnership process; and
- Think strategically about your career development. Consider hiring a coach to help with business development or career transitions (email me at [email protected] for a list of coaches I recommend). Don’t leave your legal career to chance!
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.