In spite of today’s economic turbulence, law firms of all types pursue attractive lateral partner candidates aggressively. The best laterals can enhance your client service capacity, your total client base, and your professional reputation, preventing erosion during difficult times. Firms are approaching new opportunities more cautiously, but lateral partners remain centerpieces of law firm growth strategies, particularly as new practice areas emerge with the changing economy.

Because it is vital that your firm recruit the best lateral partners and groups to fuel your growth, you should develop a clear vision of your business goals and how potential recruits fit into your agenda. If you come up with answers to the following questions, you will be more likely to reach your goals, and able to keep your recruiting process on track.

Will you devote significant time and resources to this process?

Recruiting lateral partners successfully takes much of your most precious commodity - time.  Excellent search firms can reduce much of the time you might spend on recruiting, playing a significant role finding and vetting candidates, communicating information, guiding, advising, prodding, and finally working through issues and getting it done. Nonetheless, your management and staff must interview, debrief, carefully review financial and other documents, garner support from the partnership and work through compensation and partnership issues. Dollars are also needed for start up costs and integration. It is smart to discuss this issue and to make sure it is done right so that the effort is well rewarded with successful outcomes.

Doing it right – what is your business plan?   The next step is formulating a growth strategy, a piece of which will entail recruiting lateral partners. Expanding the type of work performed for existing clients, marketing your expertise to new clients, or establishing new geographic locations based on particular expertise could be part of the plan.  Whether the result of in depth analysis and formally adopted by the partnership, or completely informal (in the minds of the management team), your lateral partner strategy flows naturally from the plan.  Having a plan also allows for effective and consistent communication to the potential new partners, ensuring smooth recruiting efforts, and paving the way smoother hiring and integration of key contributors.

Who do you recruit? A piece of the plan is often a wish list of lateral partners to help execute the strategy. It may include a regulatory practice to expand services provided to energy clients, or a new location in Boston to build on a prominent life sciences group in California. Armed with a plan, you can target candidates who fit the bill. Potential new partners should be able to raise your profile in a certain practice area, offer new services to existing clients, offer existing services to a wider base of clients, offer services in new locations, or generally add to the firm’s capacities to serve its target markets well. If a  lateral hire or group can increase firm visibility and profitability over time while integrating well with your culture and values, then they are a good target for your recruiting efforts.

Who do you actually hire?  Different candidates will bring different assets to your firm, and some will fit better than others.  Not all firms require consistent across-the-board billing rates, but if you do, the rates for your prespective new lawyers should be to similar to your own. Compensation formulas and number of hours generally billed should be compatible as well. Cultural issues and values are important too, including approaches to ethics and client service, treatment of professional staff, and devotion to community and pro bono efforts. Client conflicts need to be rigorously investigated as well. It is always a good idea to consider these issues as early in the process as possible to avoid coming upon a deal breaker after the investment of a great deal of time, but often these issues only become apparent after considerable examination on both sides.

The right lateral partner acquisitions provide excitement and energy by injecting new blood, new ideas and new clients into your firm. History has shown that they can also play dramatic roles in the success of your firm over time. Having a clear vision of your business plan and an understanding of how the right laterals will help you achieve your goals are critical components in lateral recruiting success.