Law firms are increasingly hiring at a team or department level.
We explored this growing phenomenon in a webinar on lateral recruitment trends last week, where Flo Recruit Co-Founder and CEO Katherine Allen joined Firm Prospects Founder and CEO Adam Oliver.
The data, sourced by Firm Prospects and featured in their Q2 Market Report, identifies lateral moves in clusters. It reflects a trend of firms adopting more aggressive growth strategies, poaching whole teams of experts rather than playing the long-game, and developing their own talent.
There are two other forces at play here. One is incremental market consolidation, where the more dominant brand acquires a smaller outfit as it expands into new markets. The other is symptomatic of a more disruptive, fast-paced commercial environment: without the time to develop talent internally and answer their clients’ immediate needs, the firm must hire oven-ready groups from across the market.
As an attorney, being part of a group move is not an unlikely outcome to happen sometime in your career. Often the group is part of a dynamic growth initiative, which can be motivating for the attorney. However, it’s always worth going in with your eyes open, looking out for those cultural differences in your working life that you have less choice over in a group move.
