Lateral Question Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi everyone, when lateraling to a new firm, when did they need your official transcripts and reference letters/references in general?

At my old firm, it took my transcripts like 6 months to get there and they never contacted my references.
It didn't seem to bother them.

My buddy's firm required official transcripts for interview and contacted his references like the day after.

Is it okay to ask interviewers to wait to contact references until you have an offer (I don't want to shoot myself in the foot at my current firm).

My current firm didn't require official transcripts at all (only needed the unofficial one for interview and they still haven't asked about my official one years later...) and only contacted my references once they told me I basically had the offer.

Would appreciate any insight and timelines on these (it may be too firm specific, but would appreciate any info).

[Anonymous User]

I lateraled and I don't think they even asked for my references. To be fair, my practice is smaller to the point where they could call people at my old firm and they were probably already friends.

I also don't think I sent "official transcripts". I just went on my school website and saved the page as a pdf that had my grades. The firms I applied to were all across v10 and v20ish

[Anonymous User]

Is it okay to ask interviewers to wait to contact references until you have an offer (I don't want to shoot myself in the foot at my current firm).

Isn't the point of contacting references to determine if they want to hire you?

[Anonymous User]

References should be someone that you trust. You should not submit someone as a reference who you would not want to find you you’re looking at other firms as of the moment you submitted their name.

I know this gets tough in biglaw and people are risk averse when it comes to sharing that they’re looking to leave, but it’s reality.

[hdr]

I've never heard of laterals being asked for an official transcript. Unofficial should be fine. If someone in HR asked me for an official transcript I'd assume she's new and doesn't know what she's doing.

Do not give references from your current employer until you have an offer. If they insist then find a couple associates you trust, but you shouldn't provide any partners. It's standard not to ask for partner references until after you get an offer.

[Sleepys]

I recently lateralled to a V30 firm. I had to share an unofficial transcript as part of the initial interview/screening process. Once I received a contingent offer, I had to share my official transcript as part of pre-employment screening. I'm surprised that your transcript took 6 months -- it seems egregious that a university doesn't have a better system. My law school uses a third-party vendor that delivered my transcript to my new firm within 24 hours.

I also had to provide references, but was expressly told they would not be contacted unless I gave my authorization and/or I accepted the firm's offer. (This was common for all firms I was interviewing with.) FWIW, they never ended up contacting my references.