Best Practices for Acquiring Lateral Hires
Before inviting a lateral-hire attorney candidate to interview, ensure your firm has a clear understanding of its needs, selling points, and expectations. Start by clarifying what qualities, experience, and attributes make a lateral hire attorney successful at your law firm. Reflect on your firm’s previous experiences with lateral hires: What has worked well, and where have there been challenges? Analyze your track record, considering both your firm’s successes and failures with past lateral hires. Use these insights to refine your criteria and articulate clear, actionable expectations for candidates. This groundwork not only streamlines the interview process but also increases the likelihood of making a successful, lasting hire.
Best Practices to Prepare for Interviewing
Assign specific interview roles to each participating team member, ensuring that all aspects of the candidate’s background and potential are covered. Prepare and distribute a list of sample behavioral questions tailored to the role, focusing on experiences, competencies, and values aligned with your firm’s culture. This structured approach ensures that interviews are thorough, consistent, and designed to elicit meaningful insights from each legal candidate.
Remind interviewers of the purpose behind each interview stage and what specific factors they should focus on. Discuss the objectives for each interviewer, including assessing technical legal skills, cultural fit, and potential leadership qualities needed for your law firm. By aligning the interview team on these goals, you help ensure a focused, efficient process that yields useful feedback.
Identify the key selling points of your law firm, such as its unique culture, client base, professional development, cross-selling opportunities, and support for business development, and develop a strategy to communicate them effectively. Tailor your presentation to address each candidate’s interests and career aspirations, demonstrating a genuine understanding of their motivations and how your firm can support their long-term success. This personalized approach increases your firm’s attractiveness to top legal talent.
Designate a dedicated “shepherd,” a point person responsible for guiding candidates through the interview process, maintaining consistent communication, and addressing any questions or concerns they may have. This role is essential for providing candidates with a positive experience, ensuring they feel valued and informed at every stage. A proactive shepherd can also help close candidates by articulating your law firm’s strengths and promptly resolving any outstanding issues.
Systematically collect and organize information from the interview process, such as candidate responses, interviewer impressions, and any relevant supporting materials. Use this comprehensive data to craft a well-reasoned business proposal that outlines the candidate’s potential contributions, anticipated challenges, and fit with the firm’s strategic goals. This proposal becomes a critical tool in making objective, informed hiring decisions. Once a hiring decision is made, transform the business proposal into a detailed integration plan. This plan should outline steps for onboarding, integration into practice groups, client introductions, and ongoing support for the new partner. By proactively addressing integration, your firm maximizes the likelihood of a smooth transition and long-term success for your new lateral.
Best Practices During the Interview
Start each interview by setting a warm, welcoming tone. Begin with a positive, open-ended question that puts the candidate at ease and encourages authentic conversation. Building rapport early not only helps the candidate feel comfortable but also fosters candid responses, allowing you to better assess their fit and potential. Take time to understand the candidate’s current situation, needs, and interests. Invite them to share what topics or information are most important to them, and be prepared to address those areas thoughtfully. This attentive approach demonstrates that your law firm values the attorney candidate’s perspective and is invested in creating a mutually beneficial relationship. Ask targeted questions to uncover the candidate’s core competencies, motivations, priorities, and goals.
Once you understand what matters most to the candidate, tailor your responses to highlight how your firm can meet those needs. This consultative approach not only helps you evaluate the attorney’s fit but also allows you to effectively “sell” your firm’s strengths in a way that resonates personally with the candidate.
Delve deeper by exploring any obstacles or limitations the candidate has faced in their current or previous roles. Ask them to describe challenges that have hindered their growth, and discuss how your firm might provide the resources, support, or opportunities they need to overcome these barriers and reach their full potential.
Sample Interview Questions for Lateral Partners
Motivation
What brought you to this point of seeking out other possible firms to join?
What frustrates you about your current firm? How have you managed these challenges?
What does the ideal working environment look like for you?
What are your long-term career goals, and how does this move fit into that vision?
Cultural Fit
What motivates you to deliver excellent work for clients?
Can you give me a specific example of a new idea or innovation you’ve brought to your practice in the past few years?
How do you stay abreast of trends affecting your clients and identify new ways to serve clients with these needs?
What are your expectations for how our law firm could best support your professional growth?
Business Development Potential
How did you land your biggest client?
What do you do for clients to develop the relationship vs. what your colleagues do?
Tell me about your business plan and how you hope to execute it during your first six months at a new firm.
Credit: NALSC Conference – educational presentation
