For evidence of a cut-throat lateral market, look no further than this statistic from our 2015 New Partners Survey: 92.5 percent of new parners say they’ve already been approached by legal recruiters.
Chalk some of those calls up to error. “Some recruiters are not as sophisticated with respect to market data, so they may blindly call first-year partners without knowing they are still getting acclimated,” says Jacquelyn Knight, a partner in New York at Major, Lindsey & Africa, one of the largest legal recruiting firms. But recruiters may intentionally contact junior nonequity partners about opportunities to join a firm with a stronger practice or platform in their specialty, or about a chance to be promoted to equity partner somewhere else, she says. “There may be a succession issue or a real strategic need at a firm that could trigger an interest in discussing a new opportunity,” Knight says. Partners at all levels may be approached about in-house positions, she says.
