This post is crucial to your mental health. Wellbeing has become a major concern in the legal profession, especially, so please pay attention. Picture this: I was having dinner in Beverly Hills at a sidewalk café with my friend. The food and setting were wonderful; the company and conversation were scintillating; the temperature and golden…
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It started with some random comments from hiring contacts and then we realized we were seeing a trend: associates from highly regarded firms were committing faux pas during their in-person interviews. COVID forced the legal profession to finally accept the convenience of virtual interviews, but it created a mini generation of attorneys who had never…
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Attorneys who join a firm laterally make partner faster than “homegrowns,” those who joined right after law school graduation, according to statistics followed by Leopard Solutions since 2012. That gap has been consistent and widening over the past decade. Why is it that laterals do better than home grown attorneys? We don’t know for sure…
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Before becoming a legal recruiter, I spent about a decade practicing law, including both at a BigLaw firm and in the in-house legal department of large global company. When I made that in-house move, I asked all the typical questions about compensation, scope of work, reporting structure, and company culture. It was an exciting transition…
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Successful lateral partner recruiting is about more than just hiring good lawyers—it’s about gaining good clients. You must show top talent why they should join your firm rather than your competition. Then you must keep them happy long-term by providing the platform they need to bring over their existing clients, properly service them, and expand…
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POV: After a couple of years at a law firm, you have decided you want to move in-house. You land an interview. You nailed the OCI interviews back in law school, and after a few years of hob-nobbing with lawyers while practicing, you know exactly how to charm lawyers in interviews for in-house roles. Next…
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The 2025 Am Law 100 survey results are out and they show dramatic changes in how BigLaw is structured and operated. These changes are so transformative that the reasonable expectations of lawyers, based on the previous reality, may be unfulfilled. Those lawyers may end up believing that the promises made to them in law school…
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Thinking about coming to California? If so, you’ll have lots of competition, but there also may be lots of opportunities. Of the more than over 1.3 million lawyers in the United States, a quarter of them are in just two states – New York and California. There are about 190,000 active attorneys in California with…
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“Bad actors” refers to lawyers who behave badly, either by engaging in inappropriate conduct (sexual or otherwise) or harassing others on the job. Yet they progress in their legal careers, sometimes earning bigger and better titles and compensation packages, while continuing to behave badly in new settings. What can be done about them? Do recruiters…
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At the beginning of the 21st century, in 2002, the first ‘new model” (aka distributed or virtual) law firm was launched. The firm, FisherBroyles, now ranks 148 on the AmLaw 200. At the start of 2024, 130 lawyers spun off from FisherBroyles to form Pierson Ferdinand, offering changes to the original model. Pierson Ferdinand now…
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