Last year was the strongest year since 2009 for lateral partner moves at big law firms, helped by the mass hire of hundreds of partners by Morgan Lewis & Bockius from failed Bingham McCutchen, which occurred during our latest survey period. The vigorous job-hopping occurred despite growing skepticism by industry experts about the value of lateral hiring and its contribution to firms’ bottom lines.
Our survey, conducted by ALM Legal Intelligence (ALI), tracked 2,890 lateral partner moves at Am Law 200 law firms in the year ending Sept. 30, 2015. That represents a 5.6 percent increase from the same period last year, when 2,736 partner arrivals and departures were noted. It is about 43.5 percent more moves than in 2010, when 2,014 moves were recorded, a post-recession low.
