Is it difficult to change law firms once you're counsel at one? Forum

(Deciding to leave, same firm different office, Reference requests)

AuthorDWRandolph

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Re: Is it difficult to change law firms once you're counsel at one?

Post by AuthorDWRandolph » Sat Dec 24, 2022 12:51 am

It depends. Are you attempting to lateral as a counsel, or as a[n income] partner? (Presumably you're not seeking to lateral as a senior associate or equity partner.) Are you a counsel at an Am Law 100 firm and seeking to move "down market" to a lower-ranked firm in the Am Law 100, or in the Am Law 200? Are you moving from a larger market to a smaller one? Do you have any portable business or a desirable (and potentially profitable) area of expertise? Are you in a profitable practice area where firms are struggling to keep up with client demand and are hiring? There is a phenomenon of attorneys who are deemed "too senior" having a difficult time of lateraling, unless they have a portable book of business (of at least some size, e.g., $250K+), expertise, or the firm they're lateraling to needs someone in their practice area at approximately their experience level (e.g., to service clients of a busy rainmaker). There are numerous factors that would go into answering this question. You'd likely have some options, but where they'd be and how many would depend on these sorts of factors.

D.W. Randolph, author of Big Law Confidential

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Re: Is it difficult to change law firms once you're counsel at one?

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Dec 27, 2022 10:03 am

Asking for a friend that is a senior associate at a V10, would you say in general that lateraling to a counsel role to another firm V25-V100 is not a good move if the main goal is eventually to make partner? Should they hold out as long as they can to maybe go to a NEP at a V25-V100?

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