There was a time when becoming a partner at a law firm meant that you would stay until death or retirement. But over the last few decades, that has changed.
Partners now work for firms more as free agents than lawyers immutably bound to the firm.
This isn’t just a question of partners wanting to move; almost all firms now see adding lateral partners as a vital component of their growth strategy. So not only is it now acceptable for partners to switch firms, but firms also rely on these moves for survival.
If you are frustrated with your current firm and are considering making a lateral move to a new law firm, you are not alone – a lot of lawyers are making the move.
The good news is that according to the 2023 Major, Lindsey & Africa Lateral Partner Satisfaction Survey, 86% of lateral partners were happy with the move. 83% reported that they would still move to their current firm if they had to do it again. And 75% of laterals increased their originations since joining the new firm.
In my years helping rainmakers find their exact right perfect-fit law firm, I’ve encountered no shortage of different circumstances leading lawyers to decide to make the jump to a new firm. Every partner’s set of reasons for making a lateral move is unique. However, there are a few common factors that tend to crop up.
If you’re unsure whether your lateral move daydream is something you should consider further, understanding these common reasons other rainmakers have chosen to pursue a change may help guide your decision-making. In this post, I go through the top 5 reasons law firm partners make a lateral move, both according to the MLA study and my experience.
After reading this post, you may be one step closer to that new corner office at your exact right, perfect fit firm.
Reason 1: Lack of confidence in firm management/strategy
In the MLA Satisfaction survey, 44% of respondents said they left their former firm because they lacked confidence in its management and strategy. Often, this means that their current firm is unwilling to move into new geographies, industries, or practice areas.
Suppose you are a partner in Salt Lake City with a growing book of clients who need support in Atlanta. Your firm does not have representation in Atlanta and isn’t interested in building an office in the city. Because of the firm decision, you can’t support your clients, and your firm is actively keeping you from building your book of business. You may end up referring business that should be yours to other firms.
Or, this could be an industry issue. You may be very interested in exploring new industries such as Cannabis or start-ups, and your firm takes a much more conservative stance and is unwilling to do so; that can be an issue.
Currently, AI is one of the fastest-growing law practice areas; if you want to ride this wave but your firm doesn’t agree, you may lose confidence in your firm’s strategy.
The opposite can be true: perhaps you think moving into riskier industries is a bad idea while your firm is gung-ho on the concept and forcing you into issues you’d rather not tackle.
These are not the only strategy frustrations lateral partners experience. Many other strategic decisions can affect a partner’s practice, including hourly rates and staffing decisions, cross-marketing initiatives, and investment in business development support. In small firms, you may be worried about succession planning.
The question to ask yourself is how aligned you are with the firm’s decisions and how their strategy helps you Build Business and even Define a Legacy of your own.
Reason 2: Compensation
People are often surprised that compensation isn’t the top reason lawyers leave, but it is an important one. According to the MLA report, 39% of lateral partners cite compensation as a significant factor – it is the second most common complaint.
Truthfully, the other top reasons are related to compensation: if you don’t have the support, you can’t grow your practice, and you can’t grow your practice if the firm’s strategy is wrong.
But some things directly impact your compensation, and one of the most common complaints is origination credit. Often, newer partners end up doing the work to bring in business from a client, while the origination credit goes to the partner who initially brought the client to the firm decades earlier.
We’ve even worked with candidates whose clients tell them to move firms because the clients themselves think the compensation structure is unfair to the lawyer who solves their problems.
There is an infinite variety of compensation structures– if your firm’s compensation structure doesn’t work for you, we can find one that does.
If you’d like to value your book of business to better understand what portable business you could take to a new firm, check out our book of business calculator.
Reason 3: Lack of support to build a practice
According to the MLA satisfaction survey, a lack of support plays a role in 38% of lateral partners’ moves. Fundamentally, without the right support, your time becomes a bottleneck: client support is on you.
The problem is that you can only serve their clients or build their practice with associates, staff support, and marketing support. There are only so many hours in the day, and if you are stuck writing every brief or changing the toner in the printer (true story), you are not out developing business and supporting your clients.
As an associate, the value you bring to a firm is the time you can bill and the hours you put into the business. But as a rainmaking partner, the value you provide is the business you bring in so that others do the work. Often, partners cannot make that transition, or the firms don’t support partners with the staff they need to make that transition.
If you find yourself working nights and weekends, both bringing in the business and doing the work, if you can’t Define Boundaries, remember other firms will support you; you don’t have to do it all.
Reason 4: Don’t like the firm’s culture
If you don’t like the people you work with or the culture you work within, you will often dread returning to the office. This was third in the MLA study, with 29% of respondents citing culture as an important factor.
Some people prefer a competitive, eat-what-you-kill environment, while others prefer a more collaborative approach.
But culture can be more subtle as well. Maybe you don’t like the people you work with or how they work.
Sometimes, a firm does everything to support its partners, but it is the wrong support for you.
One example comes from a candidate I placed who was at a firm that agreed not to work from 5 to 7 in the evening so that they could have dinner with the family and take care of the kids. After the break, they’d all jump back on Zoom and work through the evening.
That was great for everyone except one of the lawyers, who didn’t have kids but wanted them, so he needed to date. He would have much rather worked those two hours and had more time to go on dates later and maybe, someday, end up with a family.
The point is that there is no right culture; there is only the right culture for you. If you aren’t happy where you are, then there is another culture that will be a fit. Finding that fit is a principal reason partners leave.
Reason 5: Firm’s financial health
According to MLA, 20% of lateral partners consider financial health an important factor.
A law firm is a business, and business decisions will impact your ability to serve clients and your earning potential.
Bad decisions include taking on too much risk, expanding too quickly, or perhaps overpaying partners and underpaying associates.
I’ve seen aging partners starve a firm of resources to pay themselves. Or management that may burden a firm with debt or assets that don’t generate a return.
Several financial decisions can impact a firm’s viability, and if you question your firm’s financial health, it may be time to move.
These aren’t all the reasons.
There are as many reasons to leave as there are partners who go. Other causes include client conflicts, age or succession issues, gender discrimination, and more.
Ultimately, if you are unhappy at your current firm, whatever the reason, it is not only acceptable to consider making a switch; it is expected.
You are a rainmaking partner, so you should be happy with your firm. If you’re at your perfect-fit law firm, you should stay there. But if not, you deserve a work environment that fulfills and nurtures you, and you deserve to enjoy practicing law again.
If you are ready to move, let’s schedule a time to discuss the future.
