The selection of lateral partners has
long been the exclusive domain of lawyers. Not only are lawyers best able to
evaluate the legal skills and reputation of another attorney, but determining
with whom you would like to practice law in a partnership is an intensely
personal choice. It's no surprise most firms keep lateral recruiting a lawyer
driven and managed process.
But should they?
REMAKING THE OLD MODEL
Innovative law firms are increasingly
bringing other disciplines into the lateral recruiting, selection, due
diligence and integration processes. In particular, business development
professionals are being embedded throughout the process. Firms are using their
marketing professionals to assess a candidate's business development acumen,
evaluate client portability, pitch the firm more effectively and develop more
strategic integration and marketing plans.
"Embedding us early in the
process improves the ROI of the lateral because they start their plan the day
they begin at the firm and it puts us 25 steps ahead," said David Kaufman,
director of regional sales, U.S. and international offices for Nixon Peabody
LLP. "It radically improves the integration process."
Business development professionals
are also being called on to assess the business development strengths of
candidates. Should a lateral's client not port over, firms want assurances that
the lateral has the business development skills to build a new book of
business.
"Attorneys tend to focus on the
legal skill sets of attorneys and how they will fit in to the practice,"
said Keith Solar, San Diego office managing partner for Buchanan, Ingersoll and
Rooney PC. "Our [business development] folks add value to the process by
figuring out who really knows how to develop business."
Some firms, unhappy with the results
of their lateral recruiting efforts, have even turned to marketing to
re-engineer the entire process. That's what Mintz Levin did and the results
have exceeded their expectations. Tapped by the firm's managing partner, Amy
Fowler, Mintz Levin's chief marketing officer, mapped and examined the process
starting from their relationships with recruiting firms and working through to
the lateral's integration into the firm.
She found a need to deepen recruiting
firm relationships, improve communication with the recruiters and tighten up
the interviewing and integration processes. The changes she and Shannon Davis,
director of legal recruiting, implemented include a mandatory lateral office
tour facilitated by a dedicated business development manager, redesigning the
interview process to ensure each attorney has a specific role in the interview
and reorganizing the marketing group to better support laterals.
A NEW KIND OF LATERAL COMMITTEE
To manage the process, Fowler created
a lateral recruiting committee made up of herself, the office managing
partners, the firm's chief operating officer, the director of recruiting. The
committee oversees every aspect of the process from interviewing and selection
to managing any challenges that arise during the integration process.
Asked why the lateral recruiting
committee was made up of office heads and not practice group leaders, Fowler's
answer revealed the deep understanding she and the firm have gained in
supporting lateral integration.
"We have a firm strategic plan
and it includes the target list of practice experience we are looking
for," she offered. "But the laterals will be working and socializing
most closely with the people in their office. Having the buy-in of the office
managing partners early on really helps ensure there is support for that
lateral in that office. It makes a big difference."
One critical aspect to the recruiting
process is the lateral's business and marketing plan, the development of which
is also starting earlier in the process. David Salisbury, West Coast director
of business development at Mintz Levin, interviews every candidate in the
western region to assess the lateral's business development skills and build an
individualized marketing plan for each lateral.
"Not only have we become pretty
accurate in being able to assess a candidate's business development abilities,
but the deep dive we do in our interviews helps us map out an integration and
marketing plan that makes the best use of the laterals time during their
on-boarding," Salisbury said. "It's on their desk the day they
start."
Interestingly, the plan emphasizes
the opportunities inside the firm for the lateral versus an emphasis on which
clients of the lateral the firm can serve.
"We feel that offering
opportunities with our clients for the lateral first builds trust," Fowler
said. "We think it helps us start the relationship out on the right foot.
It has the added benefit of helping us identify the work that the lateral can
do while they are trying to port over their clients."
CHANGE IS GOOD
Several firms acknowledge their
business development professionals as assets in selling the firm to laterals.
But innovations in lateral recruiting include tapping outside expertise as
well. Some firms are turning to outside consultants to re-engineer their
recruiting program, solicit a third party's opinion on the portability of the
candidate's client book, develop integration plans and hire business
development coaches to work with laterals throughout the integration process.
This focus on lateral integration may
be having the desired effect for both laterals and law firms. A 2014 Major,
Lindsey & Africa survey of lateral partner satisfaction found a strong
correlation between integration efforts and lateral satisfaction. Compared to
the results of MLA's 1996 survey which found law firms were less than effective
in four out of the five areas of integration, lateral partners now view their
new firms as having been effective in integrating them along all five
measurements of integration.
This column
originally ran in The Recorder December 4th, 2014