Which Am Law Firms Have Grown (And Which Have Decayed) In 2017?

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Michael Allen is the CEO of Mainspring Legal. 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.

Lateral Link’s team of experienced legal recruiters have followed the lateral attorney market over the past decade, like legendary MLB scout George Genovese followed baseball prospects for a handful of decades. Genovese had an eye for identifying the raw talent that an unheralded high school or college player might develop. Genovese signed some 40 players who made the major leagues, including such Southern California standouts as George Foster, Jack Clark, Bobby Bonds, Chili Davis, Gary Matthews, Matt Williams, and Royce Clayton.

Like with many up-and-coming ball players, oftentimes someone else will see partner-track all-stars’ latent talent before said standouts recognize it themselves. Usually self-awareness kicks in on Monday morning, after the results (or lack thereof) have fully materialized. At Lateral Link, we use a host of sophisticated databases, such as Leopard Solutions, LinkedIn Recruiter, and our proprietary system (we call it “The Mainspring Exchange”) to spot trends allowing us to forecast the market.

As a quick review of the lateral attorney market in 2017, I’d like to share an interesting report, courtesy of Leopard Solutions, called the Growth Decline Report.

By way of example, over the past 12 months, Kobre & Kim added 21 attorneys, lost 6, and of the 21 added, 20 were laterals. That’s a 23% increase in attorney headcount. On the other hand, Stroock shrunk by around 14%. As for the analysis behind the numbers, we could draw many conclusions, and this is where we channel our inner Genovese. If you cut out the fat (and keep the muscle) a firm is probably better off despite shrinking, i.e., by keeping profitable attorneys, increasing hours and utilization, decreasing payroll, and the like. However, if a firm’s losses include profitable partners, then revenue follows and a firm may spiral out of control in decline. I will leave out names, but a few stand out in the report. I am very interested in the reasons behind the numbers for some of these firms on this Growth Decay chart. If you are as well, please reach out to our team of recruiters to help navigate the story behind the numbers.

---

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.