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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

BRING ‘EM ON - Lateral hiring undoubtedly took a significant wallop this past year. According to data from consulting firm Decipher, there was a 30% year-over-year drop in lateral moves and a 23% decline compared to the three-year average from 2017, 2018 and 2019. But, as Law.com’s Andrew Maloney reports, a closer look tells a more positive story—at least for the top firms, who pulled even further ahead of the rest of the pack last year and actually used the pandemic as an opportunity to bring on more quality talent. Interestingly, while remote work was initially viewed as a hiring hurdle, it may actually have facilitated some lateral moves later in the year, once videoconferencing had become a way of life and firms had mastered the mute button. As Dan Scott, director of recruiting firm Angott Search Group, put it: “Do you know how hard it is to get five lawyers into the same room? Do you know how much easier it is to get five of them onto a Zoom call?”