“The same problems followed me after I lateralled. Every firm is the same, and maybe I should just leave the practice of law.” “I stayed at my firm because I knew I could make partner, now I can’t get out of here fast enough, but I keep getting rejected.”
These two sides of the lateral coin show up nearly every day when I’m speaking with attorneys about their careers. Moving to the wrong firm, moving too early, waiting to move until it’s too late – it feels like making a lateral move is a minefield of wrong choices and any misstep will derail the career you’ve spend years dreaming of and will spend decades paying for.
Assessing when you should stay at your firm or when you should go is critical to career development. Properly assessing your current situation is where some attorneys get into trouble. Often, they’ll leave when they should stay and stay far after when they should leave. Everyone’s situation is unique, and you should consult a trusted recruiter who can guide you through your situation, but I find most people will resonate with one of the following situations.
“I joined my firm six months ago, but I’m always willing to hear about an opportunity.”
Stay. Having too many moves on your resume is still a major red flag to firms. Sentiments are changing, but they’re changing at law firm pace. I spoke to an associate recently who bristled when I told him he needed to stay at his firm two years – better still three. He already made three lateral moves, as a mid-level, and he was at one of his firms for only eight months.
When you have too many moves on your resume, especially if any are in quick succession, partners will be afraid you’re unable to integrate into a group, are repeatedly being fired or encouraged to leave, just chasing money, or will generally never be satisfied.
The old advice to be at your firm for a year was always intended to be the minimum, not the maximum, and never the average. Take a look at your resume from a firm’s perspective. If they could only count on you to be at their firm for the average time you’ve spent at each of your prior firms, would you be a good investment?
“I don’t want to be partner at my firm for the long-term, but I’m so close to being elevated.”
Go. The achievement of making partner can be such a strong milestone it makes attorneys stay at their firm far longer than they should. If you don’t see a future at your firm, your career has stalled. You may still be doing good work, but you are in quicksand.
The reality is that it can be very difficult to lateral as a partner without business. Partners need different resources and support from a firm than associates, so asking a firm to invest those resources in you, bill you out at a higher rate, without your ability to offset costs with portable business can be a nonstarter, especially in the current lateral market. This isn’t to say it can’t be done. It can, but these are exceptions.
If you look around at the partners at your firm and you see that’s not what you want for your career, maybe you’re entrepreneurial and your firm has a ton of institutional clients and billing rates which make building your own book prohibitively expensive, or the opposite, maybe you just want to be a grinder and not develop business, but that’s the expectation at your firm, you should consider strategically exploring the market. It will feel like you’re losing ground and making partnership further away, but you will make up ground in the long-term not fighting against the economic realities of the business of law.
“I’m learning a ton now, but partners tend to keep senior-level work, so seniors are still doing mid-level work.”
Stay, for now. I can hear you say, “this is the opposite of what you just said – don’t stay at a firm when you know the future isn’t what you want.” The difference here is that you’re still learning. If you are growing and developing, especially as a junior and into a mid-level associate, that development is essential to your future marketability to another firm.
Imagine the classic plateau curve, or s-curve, where strong initial growth eventually levels off. As long as you’re on the initial ascent, the immediate value of the near-term growth outweighs the future risk of plateau. Once you get nearer the plateau, that’s when the equation shifts.
Plan on a lateral search taking six months to find the right fit for you. Look at more senior attorneys who struggle with continued growth, find when their growth stalled, then plan on starting your search six months to a year prior to when they hit the plateau. This way you maximize your training and your value to a potential new employer.
“There are some weeks I want to die, and the partners don’t provide much support.”
Go, immediately. This is verbatim what an associate told me recently. Some people may use hyperbolic language, but it’s important to recognize the mental health crisis many attorneys face. Fellow recruiters Jennifer Gillman of The Happy Rainmaker and Joe Ankus of Attorney Mental Health Education each offer excellent resources and advocacy for mental health.
The associate I was speaking with was being hyperbolic, but just barely. No amount of salary is worth being miserable. Changing jobs is stressful, and if you’re already struggling, that added stress can feel insurmountable. This is one reason why I believe a talented, honest, legal recruiter can be so valuable. Your recruiter can take on most of the burden of finding a new position, help you polish your resume, prepare you before interviews, handle the emails and the paperwork, all the research, all the back and forth, and on and on. Bottom line: you don’t have to suffer, and you don’t have to suffer alone.
Each person’s experience is unique, and a good recruiter will be able to offer unbiased advice to determine if your situation calls for staying or going. Before undergoing a lateral move, talk with your firm about your concerns (diplomatically and without demands). Nothing will ever change if you don’t clearly communicate your challenges, and it raises the risk you’ll encounter the same frustrations wherever you go. If the firm can’t change, or won’t listen to your concerns, then you know it’s time to move on.
When that time comes, you can be confident you’ve avoided the danger of moving when you shouldn’t and have safeguarded your resume against one of the biggest red flags firms look for and be the most competitive candidate you can be.
