Fastest lateral process? Forum

(Deciding to leave, same firm different office, Reference requests)
Anonymous User
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Fastest lateral process?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jan 12, 2020 4:11 pm

Hi all,

For certain reasons, I’m trying to lateral very quickly (hopefully have an offer by the end of the month and lateral mid-feb). I’m using friends where possible (not just cold-emailing alum at firms who couldn’t care less if I get a job since I don’t have much time and I don’t want to keep bugging strangers for updates), direct-applying for firms that don’t use recruiters, and using recruiters for the rest.

I was wondering what the fastest process has been for people. Is it possible to go from submission to offer in 3 weeks? Or is that unheard of? If it’s in a different city (3 hour plane ride away), does this complicate the timeline due to logistics?

FWIW, some of the positions I’m applying to have been vacant for over a year, so I don’t think they’re in a hurry to hire, but others just posted this week.

kaiser

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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by kaiser » Sun Jan 12, 2020 4:45 pm

I have never heard of the process moving quite that quickly. And I'm not sure how you could press for things to move along faster since it would just seem like you are desperate. Thats not to say lateral moves need to take a long time. When I lateraled, the firm I ended up at only did one round of interviews. In one day, I met with every partner and associate in my group. Whereas another firm I considered had me in for 3 separate rounds of interviews over the course of about 2 months. Really depends on how urgent the need is, and whether they can condense everything into one visit. If you are from out of town, its more likely they may be willing to have you meet everyone all at once to avoid the need to travel there twice. So maybe that's one thing you can request if possible that would speed things up.

Anonymous User
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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:24 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Hi all,

For certain reasons, I’m trying to lateral very quickly (hopefully have an offer by the end of the month and lateral mid-feb). I’m using friends where possible (not just cold-emailing alum at firms who couldn’t care less if I get a job since I don’t have much time and I don’t want to keep bugging strangers for updates), direct-applying for firms that don’t use recruiters, and using recruiters for the rest.

I was wondering what the fastest process has been for people. Is it possible to go from submission to offer in 3 weeks? Or is that unheard of? If it’s in a different city (3 hour plane ride away), does this complicate the timeline due to logistics?

FWIW, some of the positions I’m applying to have been vacant for over a year, so I don’t think they’re in a hurry to hire, but others just posted this week.
I've received an offer in 5 weeks, but I think three weeks is nigh impossible.

Anonymous User
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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jan 12, 2020 11:23 pm

There is no way to know. Answers for my searches have come anywhere from (not counting the typical few days to a week to schedule the first interview) months after interviews to next day offers (6 day process), and my fastest was an offer as I left the parking lot (4 day process, firm I knew well already). However the openings for my quickest offers weren't available for months into my job search so it's not like this is even useful for your overall timeline. Just apply as broadly as possible and with all your connections to help your odds. Ask peers/classmates if they know anyone looking for your practice area. Good luck

Anonymous User
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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:47 am

My most recent jump was like 1 week from submission to offer.

The one before that was like ~1-2 months maybe?

It just depends.

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nealric

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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by nealric » Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:04 pm

Conflicts check along is going to take two weeks or so. I think 6 weeks is about as fast as could be realistically done, and that's if you already had leads and applications in. Starting from scratch, I would budget more time if at all possible. It took me 8 months to lateral. Not because there was impossible to move more quickly, but because it usually takes time to find a good fit.

Best

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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by Best » Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:10 pm

I went submission to offer in about 2 weeks. They asked me to submit my conflicts before they were ready to make an offer to speed things up. The overall process took about 6 months from when I began applying for lateral positions.

TigerIsBack

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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by TigerIsBack » Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:11 pm

When I lateralled, it was about 2.5 weeks from the time the firm reached out to my recruiter to schedule the first interview until the offer. I only did 1 day of interviews, which lasted about 5 hours, and then got the offer 2 days later. Then it was about 5 more weeks after that when I actually started at my new firm.

That said, the gap from my submission until the initial contact from the firm was about 2-2.5 months (I was a relocation candidate, so I assume the firm spent some time trying to find good local candidates before responding to my recruiter about me).

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trebekismyhero

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Re: Fastest lateral process?

Post by trebekismyhero » Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:22 pm

It is possible to go from submission to offer in 3 weeks or less, especially if you're in an area that is needed. But as nealric said, with conflicts check will add a decent amount of time on top of that and I wouldn't give notice to your current employer until you clear conflicts.

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