As law firms strategize to enhance their lateral partner hiring processes, they face mounting challenges, particularly with lateral market trends forecasting record activity in Q4 — despite a 35-percent decline in 2023. With nearly half of lateral hires leaving within five years, retention has become more crucial than ever. As lateral moves and firm mergers increase, ensuring successful integration is key to securing long-term growth and stability.

How can law firms improve success with retaining lateral hires? A recent discussion of trends, obstacles and best practices for lateral integration featured Elizabeth Kennedy, principal with NewEdge BD; Erin Ryan, director of partner integration & business development coaching at McGuireWoods; and Megan Henry, lateral partner integration manager at Bradley, at the 2024 Legal Marketing Association Southeast Regional Conference.

Their tips and shared advice provided creative, practical and streamlined solutions to law firm marketers involved in the lateral integration process.

Why Recruit Lateral Partners

To combat lateral dissatisfaction; diminished productivity; and loss of a firm’s invested time, focus, clients, and money when laterals leave, Ryan discussed her firm’s holistic approach to integration, which first requires understanding why a particular lateral is being recruited.

Different business cases require different integration strategies. For example, a lateral bringing in new knowledge or experience may approach integration differently from one hired to break into a new market. Similarly, someone with a multi-million-dollar book of business will have different priorities than someone strengthening an existing bench of service. Integration strategy can also vary based on background: Laterals from government or in-house roles may have different expectations than those coming from other law firms.

As the lateral moves deeper into the integration process, Ryan said, the questions become:

  • “Have we given the lateral what they personally need to succeed?”
  • “Do we have open lines of communication with the business development (BD) and marketing team, recruiting team, leadership team and others, to continue a successful integration?”
  • “What have we learned that we can improve for the next lateral partner?”

Integration Best Practice #1: Centralize the Process

Adopting a centralized and consistent process can ease the burden for those involved in lateral integrations at the firm.

“This is a natural place to start because it forces you to take stock of your current situation, then identify inefficiencies and make easy tweaks,” said Ryan.

She highlighted the importance of aligning the firm’s departments with the lateral’s business reasons for joining, defining what success looks like for everyone, and establishing clear communication plans to monitor progress.

Other helpful tips include:

  • Talk with the lateral about how they have approached business development in the past, areas in which they would like to improve and strategies that worked well for them.
  • When providing progress updates, give context for the numbers by summarizing the lateral’s internal and external outreach, detailing the opportunities the lateral has generated, and understanding the initiatives the lateral is involved in. Act as an advocate, gain agreement on next steps and highlight any challenges that could interfere with the lateral’s success.

Integration Best Practice #2: Prioritize Initiatives and Use Short-term Action Plans

Kennedy reiterated that having a shorter list of action items will make that plan more actionable. Prioritization helps to streamline initiatives for short-term plans to feed momentum, she said.

“Review the business objectives of the lateral and firm to identify and align target audiences of synergy groups, clients and prospects,” she said. “Look at data points from accounting, the CRM system, client/industry reports and directory submissions, and more. Then create an actionable 90-day business plan with five to 10 goals and scheduled progress assessments.”

Other helpful tips include:

  • Leverage cross-practice group opportunities (client, industry, issue, product and other teams) to help laterals engage with lawyers from different practices and offices, and build institutional knowledge.
  • Think broadly about relevant business services teams (e.g., Innovation, Knowledge Management, Legal Project Management, Professional Development, Pro Bono, DE&I, and Pricing) to help laterals with “Bring the Best of the Firm” go-to-market strategies.
  • Involve junior team members/legal assistants to help track, follow up, report on progress, and maintain and update the short-term plans.

Integration Best Practice #3: Leverage Key Messaging

Messaging is extremely important and is where a BD team member can add value by being a connector, a host and an introducer, said Henry.

Helping a legacy partner understand why they should take that lateral out to lunch with a client despite their busy schedule is really important, and providing proper messaging makes all the difference. Share key message points when making requests for one-on-one meetings with other partners. Introduce the new lateral by sharing their background and experience, timing/reason for the meeting, and contacts and key industries.

A lateral can add value when introduced internally by sharing points about where their practice and experience can provide insights about the impact of certain current events. They can also offer a short list of leading questions that other firm partners can ask their clients in the same space to generate interest, Henry added.

Other helpful tips include:

  • Choose three to five key audiences. Prepare concise business and competitive intelligence briefings for each audience, leveraging internal and external data. 
  • Talk to laterals about their priority contacts. Arm them with deliverables and key firm messaging points before initial discussions.
  • Give laterals visibility on internal platforms — prepare, schedule and rehearse concise introductions to industry teams, practices, client teams, etc.
  • Draft emails for laterals to send after internal team meetings expressing thanks, a summary of their practice and how they can help — their follow-up is key! They should make it easy for legacy partners to introduce the lateral to their clients.

Integration Best Practice #4: Motivate and Track with KPIs and Useful Data Points

Over time, as efforts mature, firms can build important business intelligence by tracking data related to lateral integration, Ryan noted.

Using a technology platform can easily provide dynamic insights on a selection of data points that align with the firm’s objectives and goals for the lateral. The first step is to understand what data already exists in the firm’s systems, and then decide which data points matter. Even basic information like hire/departure dates, office and former employer can provide insights with reliable tracking.

Audience members offered additional best practice ideas, such as:

  • Assign an attorney team for laterals, composed of a firm board member, BD team member and firm “buddy” from a different practice area, all of whom check in regularly with the lateral. Shared insights and feedback provide ongoing communication that informs the board each month about the progress of that lateral’s integration.
  • Ensure that firm events and programs are immediately added to the new lateral’s calendar so they have built-in opportunities to meet colleagues and clients.
  • Facilitate conversations between a lateral candidate and the chief business development officer even before the partnership votes on the lateral.
  • Find an appropriate place for the BD team in the recruiting, interviewing and onboarding process, which increases the likelihood of higher lateral retention. 

Attendees were optimistic that firms are starting to realize that they need to up their integration game to safeguard their lateral investments. For additional resources, including examples of a job description for a lateral integration professional, lateral integration process and plan, and lateral presentation for internal and external audiences, contact Vivian Hood at vhood@jaffepr.com.