In most years, March would be one of the most active months of the year with regard to lateral hiring. But with Covid-19 having a major impact on the legal industry as a whole, lateral hiring was also impacted. As a result, there were only 48 partner and counsel moves reported in March, down from 59 the previous month and from 78 in March 2019.
While most of the managing partners and law firm recruiters tell us that they are actively trying to recruit partners, the stream of laterals slowed down because either firms focused their efforts on the emergency measures themselves, couldn’t complete the process due to the inability to schedule final face-to-face meetings, or due to cold feet by some of the recruits facing an uncertain future. And we expect the low numbers to continue until, at the least, most firm employees can go back to work.
Intellectual Property and Energy continue to be the most active practice areas in terms of lateral moves. Intellectual Property led the way with nine moves. Other than one two-lawyer group that were recruited to Cooley LLP, all the moves were done by individual attorneys, including five who came in at the counsel level. Six attorneys moved in the Energy area, including a group that landed at Mayer Brown. Steptoe & Johnson also hired two energy lawyers, but from different firms (the firm made four lateral hires in March.)
Four additional practice areas were the focus of at least three lateral moves—Banking (4), FDA (4), International Trade (3), and Real Estate (3).
Other notable findings include:
- Of the 48 moves, six came from government and two came from industry.
- Of the remaining 40 law firm moves, 25 came in at the partner level. Of those 25, five laterals were promoted from counsel or associate to partner.
- Fifteen of the lateral movers were women. Nine of those joined their firm as partners.
- Besides Cooley, Mayer Brown, and Steptoe, the other firms registering more than one new lateral were Crowell & Moring, Davis Wright Tremaine, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, and Miles & Stockbridge (which brought in a three-lawyer zoning and land use group).
*Data included in these reports is derived from Firm Prospects LLC, and consists of moves reported in March. For more details and analysis, please contact Steve Nelson (snelson@tmg-dc.com) or Dave Ris (dris@tmg-dc.com).
