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Thinking a few years ahead. I'm at a large firm that pays quite close to market in LA. Wondering which firms, if any, are easy to lateral into and what factors play a major role. I know 'years of experience' is one of them, but how important are grades, law review, school...esp after one has worked for a few years.

Looking specifically at litigation departments.

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:Thinking a few years ahead. I'm at a large firm that pays quite close to market in LA. Wondering which firms, if any, are easy to lateral into and what factors play a major role. I know 'years of experience' is one of them, but how important are grades, law review, school...esp after one has worked for a few years.

Looking specifically at litigation departments.

Depends on the firms you are looking to lateral into. Need more parameters, otherwise it's like trying to make sausages.

Also depends on the type of litigation. Generally, (stress generally) it's a bit harder to place a lateral litigator who is a generalist, as opposed to someone who has developed a bit more of a niche specialty. You don't have to be hard-core specialized (e.g. Patent Litigator), but you should have the foundation for some area of focus, like white-collar, or products liability, or soft IP, or whatever.

anon168 wrote:

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:Thinking a few years ahead. I'm at a large firm that pays quite close to market in LA. Wondering which firms, if any, are easy to lateral into and what factors play a major role. I know 'years of experience' is one of them, but how important are grades, law review, school...esp after one has worked for a few years.

Looking specifically at litigation departments.

Depends on the firms you are looking to lateral into. Need more parameters, otherwise it's like trying to make sausages.

Also depends on the type of litigation. Generally, (stress generally) it's a bit harder to place a lateral litigator who is a generalist, as opposed to someone who has developed a bit more of a niche specialty. You don't have to be hard-core specialized (e.g. Patent Litigator), but you should have the foundation for some area of focus, like white-collar, or products liability, or soft IP, or whatever.

I don't want to give away too much info but I am in Products Liability//Corporate//Commercial//Employment//Securities. I guess my main question is where do I start? There doesn't seem to be too much info on lateralling, given that all of the focus nowadays is about getting that first gig. What resources should I consult when considering lateralling and where can I find them? What things can I do now to make myself a better candidate for lateralling?

I know its prob not true but I would imagine the market for laterals to be somewhat decent given the high turnover

there isn't much advice out there on lateraling because once you have a few years of solid experience at a reputable firm the opportunities will come to you.

source: couple friends that are 3rd and 4th year associates that get multiple headhunter calls weekly

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:

anon168 wrote:

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:Thinking a few years ahead. I'm at a large firm that pays quite close to market in LA. Wondering which firms, if any, are easy to lateral into and what factors play a major role. I know 'years of experience' is one of them, but how important are grades, law review, school...esp after one has worked for a few years.

Looking specifically at litigation departments.

Depends on the firms you are looking to lateral into. Need more parameters, otherwise it's like trying to make sausages.

Also depends on the type of litigation. Generally, (stress generally) it's a bit harder to place a lateral litigator who is a generalist, as opposed to someone who has developed a bit more of a niche specialty. You don't have to be hard-core specialized (e.g. Patent Litigator), but you should have the foundation for some area of focus, like white-collar, or products liability, or soft IP, or whatever.

I don't want to give away too much info but I am in Products Liability//Corporate//Commercial//Employment//Securities. I guess my main question is where do I start? There doesn't seem to be too much info on lateralling, given that all of the focus nowadays is about getting that first gig. What resources should I consult when considering lateralling and where can I find them? What things can I do now to make myself a better candidate for lateralling?

I know its prob not true but I would imagine the market for laterals to be somewhat decent given the high turnover

Like the other poster said, once you've been out for 2-3 years, you'll get bombarded with HH calls almost weekly, if not every other day.

But that's just one side of the equation. The other is knowing which firm(s) to consider, or more importantly knowing how to set yourself up in your first job so that you know which firms you want to, and can realistically, target. Some of those factors -- like grades/gpa, clerkships, etc. -- will already be out of your control at this point, but others like experience, type of practice, etc., will not.

It just depends. One thing you might want to do is just pick up the phone and talk to a HH casually after about 6 months into your job to get a feel for the lay of the land in LA. But without knowing more about you, your goals, your background, it's hard to give you any more info.