Lateral hiring continues to be a central strategy in how law firms grow. According to a recent legal-industry transition survey for 2017, more than 95 percent of law firms indicated lateral growth was a key initiative, but it’s a strategy full of risk, unknowns and pitfalls. A tactical lateral integration plan is critical to a lateral’s success, and enables firms to mitigate the risk. But what’s involved? Successful integration is dependent on five key factors: due diligence, onboarding, communication, mentorship and culture. Each plays a critical role in facilitating a smooth transition and retention of top lateral talent.

Effective Due Diligence

Integration does not begin on a lateral’s first day of employment; it must begin during the recruitment process. It is important that your process is designed to learn as much as possible about a candidate early on. Effective due diligence can be difficult given confidentiality issues that often exist, but through the collection, analysis and assessment of objective and subjective data, you can create a thorough integration process. By leveraging a lateral partner questionnaire, your firm can collect objective data that examines specific financial metrics such as billings rates, compensation, portable billing, and fees billed and collected, to name a name a few.