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People often talk about lateral moves within biglaw, but how difficult is it to lateral from a lower ranked, less well-known biglaw firm to a more reputable firm? I will be starting at a firm in NY that, though not vault ranked, can be considered "biglaw" due to having 100+ attorneys and 160k starting salary. However, it is not super well-established in New York.

In an industry so concerned with prestige and name brand, I would like to eventually lateral to a more well-established firm, say in the V50, or at least V100. How difficult is this? Practice area is litigation and corporate restructuring.

why?

Part of it is reading this forum may have made me a little butt-hurt about prestige and not getting a vault firm. Kinda makes me feel like I need that stamp of approval on my resume to get anywhere later in my career. Another part of me is a bit concerned over the sustainability and financials of my current firm, although there's no hard evidence to make me feel that way.

I've seen it happen. I don't know how tough it is, but I think it's fairly obvious that lateraling down is easier. The people I know who "lateraled up" from a V100 to V20s were usually in smaller practice areas that the firm they joined had a need for.

Very possible. I've done it twice: first moved from a regional firm to a V100 firm, then changed practice groups and moved firms again to a V50 shop. Probably can't ever get to a really fancy place, where I'll stop feeling bad about myself, but moves "up" are certainly possible.

Anonymous User wrote:Very possible. I've done it twice: first moved from a regional firm to a V100 firm, then changed practice groups and moved firms again to a V50 shop. Probably can't ever get to a really fancy place, where I'll stop feeling bad about myself, but moves "up" are certainly possible.

lol

IrwinM.Fletcher wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Very possible. I've done it twice: first moved from a regional firm to a V100 firm, then changed practice groups and moved firms again to a V50 shop. Probably can't ever get to a really fancy place, where I'll stop feeling bad about myself, but moves "up" are certainly possible.

lol

yeah ljl

I lateralled from an unranked firm in a secondary market to a V10. It is definitely possible as I know at least four others in my firm who made similar jumps.

Credited to the above poster who said that it is usually to a smaller group with a practice-specific need. However, this is not always the case, as several of the people who lateralled up went into some of the largest groups.

I don't blame you for the prestige butt-hurt as it was a partial motivating factor for me as well. I hated feeling like I had to justify being at my old firm and make it seem like our work was on par with more well-known firms (which in retrospect was clearly not the case).

Anonymous User wrote:People often talk about lateral moves within biglaw, but how difficult is it to lateral from a lower ranked, less well-known biglaw firm to a more reputable firm? I will be starting at a firm in NY that, though not vault ranked, can be considered "biglaw" due to having 100+ attorneys and 160k starting salary. However, it is not super well-established in New York.

In an industry so concerned with prestige and name brand, I would like to eventually lateral to a more well-established firm, say in the V50, or at least V100. How difficult is this? Practice area is litigation and corporate restructuring.

It was pretty common from my lower v100 for people to lateral up. In fact, almost everyone who lateraled did so to a higher-ranked firm.

I "lateraled up" so to say, from V100 on the smallish side to a huge V25. But it didn't feel like a move in the right direction. I went back to the V100 firm for numerous reasons, including the V100 having more of the kind of work I want, getting higher level and more interesting assignments, having much better support staff, actually getting client interaction, not fitting in with the culture, and having partners/senior associates who are much easier to deal with and who are on average better attorneys in my view. I would have had limited career development opportunities at the V25. Making partner would not have really been a realistic option (not as true at the V100), and I really think I have better exit opportunities to in-house at the V100 if I decide to go that route instead. I work with awesome sauce clients.

Before you think of lateraling, why not give your firm a chance? Maybe you will like it and enjoy the practice and people there, and you are going to be getting a market salary. Rankings are not everything. The importance of jiving with a firm's culture is all but ignored by junior associates. And smaller biglaw firms of high quality can be lower in the rankings/not ranked due to their smaller size.

Anonymous User wrote:I "lateraled up" so to say, from V100 on the smallish side to a huge V25. But it didn't feel like a move in the right direction. I went back to the V100 firm for numerous reasons, including the V100 having more of the kind of work I want, getting higher level and more interesting assignments, having much better support staff, actually getting client interaction, not fitting in with the culture, and having partners/senior associates who are much easier to deal with and who are on average better attorneys in my view. I would have had limited career development opportunities at the V25. Making partner would not have really been a realistic option (not as true at the V100), and I really think I have better exit opportunities to in-house at the V100 if I decide to go that route instead. I work with awesome sauce clients.

Before you think of lateraling, why not give your firm a chance? Maybe you will like it and enjoy the practice and people there, and you are going to be getting a market salary. Rankings are not everything. The importance of jiving with a firm's culture is all but ignored by junior associates. And smaller biglaw firms of high quality can be lower in the rankings/not ranked due to their smaller size.

Why? Who cares about work, culture, and satisfaction when you can have prestige? Satisfaction doesn't mean anything if you can't feel superior to other people and self-important.
(I'm not being serious)

a) firm rankings (especially Vault) matter much less once you're out of law school, so quit worrying about this so much. I would only lateral to a more prestigious firm if there is some practice area and/or exit opportunity that is only doable from that firm. Do not lateral up just for the sake of prestige chasing (and, relatedly, don't convince yourself you're lateraling for some other reason when deep down you know that you're only prestige chasing...)