Make Better Choices with a Complete Lateral Moves Picture
Law firms naturally want to leverage as much data as possible for strategic decision-making, especially when it comes to growth. But relying on numbers without the right context can backfire for firms, leading them to draw erroneous conclusions and make significant financial and strategic missteps. There are three main ways using unrefined lateral moves data […]
The Trouble with Unrefined Lateral Moves Data
Rooting your decision-making strategy in data is always a wise decision. But considering the source of the data before taking action is imperative. The data-driven decisions your law firm makes are only as good as the quality of that data: Do you know how well is it collected, corrected, and categorized? Using raw or unrefined […]
The Fastest Path to Market Share: Why Law Firm CMOs Need A Seat at the Lateral Hiring Table
A majority of attorneys and law firm leaders say business development is set to get tougher, according to a survey by BTI Consulting. Yet many of these firms are making it harder on themselves: The Legal Marketing Association reports that in four out of five law firms, the marketing team is not involved in the […]
Lateral Books of Business: Client Portability by Region, Practice and More
In law firm lateral recruitment, one question dominates both risk management and ROI: How portable is a candidate’s book of business? While every lateral candidate—just like every matter, client and firm—is different, analyzing the portability of clients can provide some predictive insight for the 97 percent of law firms who look to grow through lateral […]
Lateral Moves: The Year That Was and The Year Ahead
Throughout 2023, Decipher Investigative Intelligence started to notice a “new normal” appear in the lateral hiring data we’ve tracked over the last six years. The drop in hiring from record levels during 2021 and 2022 finally reached a plateau last year, yet hiring remained 30 percent higher than pre-pandemic averages. Looking ahead, our 2024 projections […]
Bringing Data Into Lateral Hiring? Heed the Seven Deadly Sins of DIY Analytics
In a year of nonstop buzz about AI and data, it’s no surprise that law firms report a record use of analytics. Indeed, in a survey by Lex Machina, 68 percent of legal professionals said they were using legal analytics, up from 61 percent in 2021. Specifically, when it comes to the business side of […]
As Lateral Hiring Continues Brisk Pace, What Markets, Practice Areas are Hot?
Lateral lawyer moves in Q3 2023 once again lagged behind the previous year’s pace, but as we’re reported before, that’s only because 2022 was a unicorn, a record-breaking hiring year. Q3 partner moves were down 29 percent compared to Q3 a year ago, but there were still 15 percent more partner moves in Q3 vs. […]
The New Normal: Partner, Associate Moves Trail 2022 in Q3 But Still Beating Pre-Pandemic Levels
The return to a “normal” pace of lateral lawyer moves isn’t happening, and isn’t likely to happen in 2024 (or maybe ever). This is becoming clear as Decipher Investigative Intelligence has started to track and compare moves not only against the previous 6-year average, but also against the pre-pandemic average, the 3-year average from 2017-2019. […]
Q2 Moves Show A Hot Market for Partners, Associates Frozen in Place
Lateral lawyer moves in Q2 2023 truly show a tale of two cities: Partners continued to move at a brisk pace, while associate moves dropped more than 40 percent. Taken as a whole, lateral lawyer hiring has stabilized from the talent race of 2022; lawyer moves are down 33 percent from last year, but are […]
2023 Lateral Recruiting: Who’s in the Pool (and What Will They Cost)?
More than halfway into the year, it’s clear that 2023 will, despite some significant headwinds, be another banner year for lateral partner moves: As of Q2, partner moves were up 20 percent over the previous six-year average. In this environment of increased mobility and intense competition for top talent, it’s imperative for law firms to […]
