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What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:11 pm
by Anonymous User
If, for example, law schools primarily consider GPA and law school rank when evaluating transfer applicants, what is the equivalent set of primary considerations when firms are considering lateral hires?

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
by Anonymous User
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:17 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
lmao nobody tell him

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:20 pm
by nixy
What experience you have, what their needs are, law school, law school grades (some firms don't care about the last two, some do).
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Also, not wrong, but kind of shitty to post that anon.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:22 pm
by Anonymous User
nixy wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:20 pm
What experience you have, what their needs are, law school, law school grades (some firms don't care about the last two, some do).
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Also, not wrong, but kind of shitty to post that anon.
?

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:32 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Behold, the gunner who underperformed.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:53 pm
by nixy
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:22 pm
nixy wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:20 pm
What experience you have, what their needs are, law school, law school grades (some firms don't care about the last two, some do).
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Also, not wrong, but kind of shitty to post that anon.
?
If you're going to nitpick someone's forum post for grammar without any substantive advice, it just seems polite to do it under a username.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:16 am
by androstan
nixy wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:53 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:22 pm
nixy wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:20 pm
What experience you have, what their needs are, law school, law school grades (some firms don't care about the last two, some do).
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Also, not wrong, but kind of shitty to post that anon.
?
If you're going to nitpick someone's forum post for grammar without any substantive advice, it just seems polite to do it under a username.
I went to LS with a guy who had excellent grades, better than mine, but he had a typo on his OCI resume. One firm he really wanted turned him down and was nice enough to, when asked, tell him it was because of the typo. So, he spent 2L summer interning at the local federal district court. "Spellcheck Steve," because it was the kind of typo that would have been caught by spellcheck.

We can laugh now because he eventually got an offer at Weil and spent 5 years there before moving on, and still happily practices law.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:23 am
by eastcoast_iub
nixy wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:20 pm
What experience you have, what their needs are, law school, law school grades (some firms don't care about the last two, some do).
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Also, not wrong, but kind of shitty to post that anon.
I posted it, snowflake. If someone communicated that in an e-mail looking for a job, it would be an auto-ding.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:26 am
by eastcoast_iub
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:32 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Behold, the gunner who underperformed.
Clients of top law firms pay for top-quality legal work. Legal work product is written work product. What are you talking about?

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:51 am
by Sackboy
eastcoast_iub wrote:
Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:23 am
nixy wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:20 pm
What experience you have, what their needs are, law school, law school grades (some firms don't care about the last two, some do).
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Also, not wrong, but kind of shitty to post that anon.
I posted it, snowflake. If someone communicated that in an e-mail looking for a job, it would be an auto-ding.
Guy said you're not wrong and just pointed out your anon abuse. You're the one who responded in a snowflake manner by being so hostile to getting called out. Don't abuse anon and you won't get called out. Hope that helps.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:59 am
by Anonymous User
Putting aside bickering over typos, I do a lot of lateral recruiting and sit on my firms hiring committee. Main factors are:

1. As a threshold issue - is there a need for the person?
2. What is this persons substantive experience? Has this person been doing disclosure schedules for 5 years, or can he do a full issues list on an SPA and mark it up without direction?
3. We’re always trying to figure out if we found a diamond in the rough or if we’re hiring someone who is lateraling because they’re about to be fired.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 11:30 am
by nixy
eastcoast_iub wrote:
Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:23 am
nixy wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:20 pm
What experience you have, what their needs are, law school, law school grades (some firms don't care about the last two, some do).
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Also, not wrong, but kind of shitty to post that anon.
I posted it, snowflake. If someone communicated that in an e-mail looking for a job, it would be an auto-ding.
I agree. It’s a good thing the OP wasn’t emailing looking for a job.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 12:13 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:59 am
Putting aside bickering over typos, I do a lot of lateral recruiting and sit on my firms hiring committee. Main factors are:

1. As a threshold issue - is there a need for the person?
2. What is this persons substantive experience? Has this person been doing disclosure schedules for 5 years, or can he do a full issues list on an SPA and mark it up without direction?
3. We’re always trying to figure out if we found a diamond in the rough or if we’re hiring someone who is lateraling because they’re about to be fired.
Basically same on the lit side. What have you done, what can you do, are we getting a dud. We pretty much never need to answer (1); there's always a need.

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 1:49 pm
by Anonymous User
eastcoast_iub wrote:
Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:26 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:32 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:58 pm
Grammatical correctness is a threshold consideration.
Behold, the gunner who underperformed.
Clients of top law firms pay for top-quality legal work. Legal work product is written work product. What are you talking about?
Smacks of mid-law insecurity, mid-vault at best, by way of non-target school. Oof

Re: What does firms consider when evaluating potential lateral hires?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 2:20 pm
by papermateflair
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Sep 06, 2021 12:13 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:59 am
Putting aside bickering over typos, I do a lot of lateral recruiting and sit on my firms hiring committee. Main factors are:

1. As a threshold issue - is there a need for the person?
2. What is this persons substantive experience? Has this person been doing disclosure schedules for 5 years, or can he do a full issues list on an SPA and mark it up without direction?
3. We’re always trying to figure out if we found a diamond in the rough or if we’re hiring someone who is lateraling because they’re about to be fired.
Basically same on the lit side. What have you done, what can you do, are we getting a dud. We pretty much never need to answer (1); there's always a need.
I agree with this. I'm in tax, and we don't interview people unless we are actually looking to hire. We usually have a pretty specific idea of what niche we need to fill, and then we look for someone who either will work hard to develop those skills or who already has them. As long as the lateral meets certain basic competency requirements one way or the other, one candidate won't win a job because of grades or coming from a better firm or whatever. We also want the person to stay - we aren't hiring a lateral with the intention of pushing them out in two years, we want someone who has a reasonable case for wanting to be in big law and do the type of work we do.