Is your legal career in that awkward in-between stage? You’re no longer a junior-to-mid level associate and you’re not yet a partner with a solid book of business. Is a career move out of the question for you?
Legal employers generally like to hire 2-5-year associates laterally because they have some experience yet are trainable in the firm’s way of doing things and their bad habits are not yet set in stone. At the other end of the seniority spectrum, most law firms will happily consider a partner-level attorney who can bring business and revenues to the bottom line. But, what about those in between?
There’s good news and bad news. First, the bad news: There will be fewer opportunities for you to choose from. Now, the good news: we’re seeing more opportunities for senior associate/counsel/junior partner (non-equity) positions in law firms in a variety of practice areas throughout California.
Increasing call for tweeners in law firms
Law firms find tweeners—counsel, special counsel, senior counsel, of counsel, and junior non-equity partners—attractive because they’re more efficient than associates and can hit the ground running. Ideally, these lawyers can handle matters independently, lead teams, train, coach, and mentor junior attorneys and others. They can add technical and specialized skills needed by the firm. They should already be acting as owners of the firm in many ways yet there’s still time to grow in areas like business development, client relations, and understanding the business side of being a partner before consideration for equity status. They earn more than the associate ranks but much less than equity partners yet the firm can bill clients more for their work.
Historically, counsel and other tweener ranks were off the partnership track. Now, many of these new classes of attorneys are getting considered for partner, albeit as income or non-equity partners at least to start, giving firms a lot more flexibility and the opportunity to assess the lawyer’s fit and performance before committing to the more substantial investment of equity partnership.
Some firms adhere to the old “up or out” model where lawyers who don’t make partner in a specific period of time are managed out of the organization. Increasingly, however, law firms are happy to have some lawyers remain in a nonequity position for decades. These roles are a place for partners who are valuable but don’t have the client following, are subject matter experts, or don’t practice in an area where a firm needs equity partners, or for those who function at a partner level but don’t want the responsibilities of full equity partnership. The firms continue to make money off these lawyers as long as they’re fully engaged.
Not all lawyers aspire to attain equity status, but if you do, it’s important to make sure that the tweener status is more of a doorway than a dead end before accepting an offer. A counsel title doesn’t carry the same weight or prestige as that of any type of partner. Consequently, you might face challenges in attracting clients, impacting your ability to grow your practice and prove your potential as a rainmaker in the firm.
Book of business
What happens if you’re a partner-level lawyer without a large book of business who wants to make a lateral move? Until recently, your options were few, but things have changed somewhat.
Several years ago, the managing partner of a large law firm announced to a roomful of legal recruiters at a NALSC: the National Association of Legal Search Consultants conference that “We have excellent attorneys; what we want is excellent clients.” That’s putting it baldly but clearly—only send him partner level candidates who could bring a significant client base. But, today, a number of our clients are singing a different tune.
We currently are conducting several searches for counsel or nonequity partners with small—or even no—portable business for key roles in smaller firms and new offices of national or international firms. They’re looking for lawyers with specific practice experience to run cases independently and/or help supervise more junior lawyers on matters for the firm’s existing clients. Many of these current opportunities require hands-on experience in trials, a variety of litigation practices, labor and employment, or bank lending to name a few.
Even if you have your eye on partnership in Big Law someday but you’re roadblocked or are facing billing pressure, making it difficult to build your practice where you are, an interim move to a boutique or smaller firm with a more flexible rate structure may be just the step you need towards your ultimate goal. You can use your time in the smaller or boutique law firm environment to build a client bast and then leverage that book of business to go back to a large firm.
These days, we increasingly see lawyers making moves from Big Law firms to smaller, boutique, or midsize firms. They seek more billing rate flexibility, better work-life balance, less bureaucracy, and more meaningful work. They’re attracted to the option of bringing in smaller clients and matters than were accepted by their prior large law firms, thus increasing their options for building their books of business. (In fact, a lot of these “downstream” firms have some of the same clients as Big Law because they offer those clients the ability to handle smaller matters.) As lawyers weigh the benefits of moving out of Big Law, even with a potential pay cut, they are happy to make that tradeoff for other, long term rewards.
Or, for entrepreneurial souls
You can open the new California office of a national or international law firm. You can get in on the ground floor and play a key role in building something big. Several of our clients, national and international law firms based outside of California, are seeking partners, groups, and small firms in a variety of practice areas to start and build offices in the Golden State.
This could be the option for you if you’re entrepreneurial and are good at management and client development—even if you don’t currently have a sizeable portable book of business—because these firms have clients here and need boots on the ground to service existing work.
If your path to partnership is blocked at your current firm, this could be your opportunity to get that partner title right away or in very short order. And, if you’re willing to bet on yourself, many of these firms offer the potential to earn even more than you can make in most Big Law environments.
Ideal level for in-house moves
The best news for tweeners is that your seniority is the level at which lawyers most often first move in-house. As a senior associate or counsel you’ve most likely acquired legal and client management skills of interest to corporate law departments. You’re increasingly attractive as law firm billing rates continue to climb and more work is being kept in-house. And if you’ve already attained partnership status (even nonequity), you usually can land a better in-house role with that title. You might enter companies at a more senior level, and possibly be in a better position to feed work back to your old firm (which means they may even help you make that move).
But note that there are relatively few in-house positions available at any level of experience compared to the law firm market and, in most cases, you’ll take a pay cut. Nevertheless, as with a move from Big Law to a smaller law firm environment, these options are highly sought after by many lawyers for other, nonmonetary, reasons.
So, don’t despair!
Even if you’re a tweener and/or don’t have a significant book of business, there are options out there for you in the legal job market. You just need to look for them and we’re here to help guide you in your search.
