“Who wishes to fight must first count the cost.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Lately, we’ve seen news of ramped up lateral hiring activity among some of the larger ALSPs. From a strategic standpoint, lateral hiring can be a positive way to build talent pools and enter new markets or an offensive way to weaken competition by removing their top talent, holders of institutional knowledge, and generators of revenue. Lateral hires, however, often come at a comparatively high price and debatable ROI when compared to organic talent growth strategies. Any organization, be it a law firm, ALSP, or otherwise, that chooses to poach talent for its ranks must take care to have a strategy for integrating lateral talent into the existing culture to derive an optimal return on such investments.