In a surprising development in law firm world, senior associates are suddenly in high demand — a real change from even a year ago.  We all recognize that associates become more valuable as they gain experience and climb law firm ladders, but this is something different.  Now senior associates are especially sought after outside their firms as laterals, according to an article in the American Lawyer earlier this week.

Being the subject of lateral hiring changes the game for associates.  It puts experienced associates at the heart of the bargaining process like never before.  An associate recruiter at Major, Lindsey & Africa, as quoted in the American Lawyer and reported by Above the Law, attributes this market shift to the the lack of training for associates during the pandemic, which has created a need at firms for associates with transferable skills.  Firms are desperate for senior associates who can run a deal or a case without much supervision.  And it seems that associates with 6 years or more experience are taking advantage of that opportunity.

Here’s the Above the Law article.  Check it out and share with your friends.  Some of you may want to dust off your resumes and test the lateral market.

It is so nice to be wanted!

Last week I blogged on women in BigLaw and the option of in-house practice.  This week I am continuing on that theme.  My updated information, however, is not limited to women attorneys but also predicts an exodus of BigLaw associates within the next year.  This prediction, from the legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), as reported on Above The Law, is based on a survey of 300 BigLaw associates.  The results showed that 1 in 4 are planning to leave in that time frame and that 3 out of 5 are disappointed that that their firms aren’t working hard enough to retain them.  The explanation from MLA is as follows:

Firms have been, on a numerical basis, able to retain more associates than they bargained for because the market has been down.  But since [the second quarter of 2023], things have been better in the markets where [we] recruit.

This prediction is also based on information about practice areas that appear to be in revival mode.  According to MLA, examples are M&A, general corporate, litigation, white collar, and labor and employment.  In other words, major practices are doing very well, which is very good news, and it opens up opportunities for relocation.

So it appears that the ball is in the BigLaw management and leadership court.  It will take some TLC and effort to keep associates from bolting in mass in this reinvigorated market, but that should not be too difficult for top lawyers to figure out.  If they need any help in discovering what associate lawyers want, they always can read my books!

For more background, see this article from Above The Law.

There may be some good news for women lawyers.  According to a survey reported in a recent article on Above The Law, women general counsels are making an average of 8% more in salary than their male counterparts.  That is something significant for women lawyers to consider when contemplating employment options.  And, yes, this past summer has been referred to as the “Summer of Female Empowerment” at the box office with the likes of the Barbie movie meeting with more popularity and acceptance by female audiences than I ever would have predicted.

But, female empowerment in BigLaw is still moving at snail’s pace, and only 23 percent of equity partners in law firms today are women.  So, the comparison becomes 77 points for men at law firms versus 108 per cent for women in the offices of general counsel in the business world.  Or so it seems.  And that alone might make a woman lawyer look seriously at the options outside of law firms.

However, we all know that salary is not a stagnant number.  Once equity partnership is achieved in BigLaw, or even salary partnership for that matter, the roles are reversed and the general counsels become the proverbial salary snails.  However, the road to equity partnership can be a rocky one for women attorneys, and comparisons are hard to make.

Even today, women lawyers face persistent issues of inequity, discrimination and baby penalties that should have been eliminated years ago.  Experiences reported by recruiters in articles like this one  include the “old saws” like the indignities of assuming that women lawyers will take the meeting notes and get the coffee to treating the genders unequally and presuming that males are  more qualified to be relied upon as lawyers.  As if this is not enough to make the case for immediate reforms, those articles also include examples of harsh and derogatory language used about and to women lawyers after they announce that they are pregnant and when they come back to resume their schedules after maternity leave.  I started writing books and giving speeches to advocate for women lawyers in 2007, and I would not have predicted that this kind of behavior still would persist in 2023.

My hope is that leaders in law firms will wake up one of these days, give up this childish behavior, and start doing more of the right thing on behalf of women in the profession.  For their sake, I hope it happens before there is a mass exodus to general counsels offices where the money currently comes with the message that women lawyers are valued.