What is a law firm without great talent? -Empty office space! There are so many reasons law firms need to do more to empower their lawyers and staff to excel in their careers. One of the most critical areas I see for improvement is how you on-board your newly acquired talent.
Firstly, the competition for talent is pretty fierce right now. And secondly, talent acquisition especially at the lateral level in my opinion is one of the more successful growth strategies for law firms. But are you doing enough to help your newly acquired talent land successfully at your firm?
Here is some research as presented at this year’s Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference, by members of the firm Winston & Strawn LLP. Although it’s research done in the US, we can easily see how it’s relevant to law firms everywhere.
- Per ALM Intelligence, 2,895 partners changed firms in the AM Law 200 in the period from September 30, 2016 to October 1, 2017.
- 99% of managing partners with more than 250 lawyers said they pursued lateral hiring as a growth strategy in 2017 (Altman Weil).
- Only 59% of lateral moves from 2011 to 2016 were deemed a success by managing partners (City Private Bank survey).
These statistics would suggest law firms in general are not doing enough to support lawyers in landing successfully at their new firm.
More next week on how to improve those numbers.
