A recent Law.com article queried whether a couple of recent high-profile lateral moves have been “successful,” and cites a number factors identified in two Major Lindsey & Africa surveys (on law firm culture and lateral partner satisfaction, respectively) that bear upon satisfaction and personal values. These include culture, the ability of a new firm to support and elevate a lateral’s practice, priority given to client service, candor during the interview process, and integration.

The piece cautioned that “defining success can be tricky”; that the length of time a lateral stays at a new firm is not determinative of whether the move was a success; and “that there is no perfect, or perfectly fair, way to categorize success or not.” There may not be a perfect way to categorize success, but it’s also not tricky. There are well-known indicia both sides—law firms and lateral partners—use every day to measure “success.”

How Firms Measure Success