We spoke to 54 partners and 8 practice groups currently contemplating moves to other firms and asked:

Why are you considering
moving to another firm?

61% - I'm moving to escape firm problems, politics or conditions. (Substantive, non-practice issues)
39% - My firm is not offering enough support, cross-selling opportunities or "image" to grow my practice. (Substantive, practice issues)

The results from our survey revealed markedly different reasons from the two most commonly held beliefs about why partners lateral. Common beliefs are: 1] the offer of a great opportunity and/or 2] more money. Our survey showed that, while these two choices are by far the most commonly given, these are seldom the real reasons. Rather, they are the politically acceptable reasons. We invite you to add your opinions to the poll on your right. Next month we'll publish the combined results anonymously.
_________________________________________________

LATERAL CHALLENGES
REPLACING A STAR RAINMAKER
FINDING THE RIGHT LATERAL HAS BECOME THE SUBJECT OF ENDLESS QUIZZES, BROMIDES AND MYTHS. THIS IS NO LESS TRUE FOR THE LATERAL PARTNER SEEKING A NEW FIRM. BOTH SIDES TEND TO APPROACH THE SELECTION PROCESS ON AN OPPORTUNISTIC BASIS, I.E. THEY DEAL WITH IT IN TERMS OF WHO IS, OR WHAT'S OUT THERE, INSTEAD OF ARRIVING AT IT BASED ON THEIR OWN FOCUSED NEEDS. THIS SHORT STORY IS ABOUT THE KEY ELEMENTS OF THOSE NEEDS AND HOW TO FOCUS THEM. WE INVITE YOU TO READ IT, TAKE THE SURVEY AND CHECK BACK NEXT MONTH TO SEE THE RESULTS.

     It was just dawn when the security guard unlocked the door for the three partners going up to the firm's 12th floor conference room... all of them right on time.
     Dinky thought, "Six a.m., this is barbaric."
     But he smiled at Miles, his Practice Group Leader, and at Bill, the Managing Partner, and said, "Thanks for the early invitation. Leaving home at 5 in the morning sure helps me beat traffic."
     Bill looked as though he had been up all night. He didn't return Dinky's smile as he said, "George's departure yesterday, leaves us in a crisis. I doubt that he'll be back with us, or practice law, ever again. As you know, he had a darn big practice and we not only would like to keep it, but we owe his clients immediate backup."
     Miles said, "Should I tell him?"
     When Bill nodded yes, Miles said, "What I'm about to say needs to stay in this room. For the last two months we've had a very secret, intense search underway, with an out of town recruiter who's extremely discreet. The search is to replace George, because of our early misgivings about his antics. We already have two candidates... three if we include Brad. These are three hard to find candidates, because George has such a practice. He's like a member of his client's management."
     Dinky was as amazed by both the secret search and by their including Brad as a candidate.
     When he finally closed his dropped open jaw, Dinky said, "Look, I've been a partner in this firm for 12 years. I like and admire Brad and consider myself his good friend, but I think we would be doing Brad, the Firm and our clients a disservice if we had Brad take over George's practice. Brad's been here for fifteen years, eight of them as a partner, and he's hardly ever brought in a piece of business. In short, he's a nice guy, but his rainmaking skills, as my kids would say... suck."
     "That's why we did the search." Miles said, "Let me tell you who the other two candidates are. They both have great credentials... are both at the right experience level and both have reasonable compensation expectancies."
     Dinky said, "They sound like Siamese twins. What's the difference between them?"
     "There's one big difference. The first guy, Ben Goodfellow, has some of the best people skills I've ever seen. His practice shows that because he's consistently had a book of about $2 million but only bills about 1,200 hours himself, almost all of it to his own clients."
     Dinky said, "In short, everybody else does his work."
     "That's one way to look at it, but if you don't like that idea, the second guy, Norm Strugolosi, will appeal to you. He's gradually built his book up to about $500,000, but he bills a pretty consistent average of 1,900 hours of his own time, about half of it on other partner's matters."
     Dinky said, "Wow, they sure are different. It seems like a choice between two different practice philosophies. One is a big book, low biller and the other a modest book, big biller. That kind of begs the question as to who we are and what we believe."

We invite you to add you opinion to the poll at your right.
_________________________________________________

April 2003

YOU BE THE JUDGE

The following questions relate to the stories on the left. Answer as many questions as you'd like and at the end of this column, click "Submit" just once to record your responses. Check back next month to see the compiled anonymous results.

Q Why do you think partners make lateral moves?
They want to grow their books, but don’t have the time.
They want better compensation plans.
They want origination credit.
They want to escape their firm’s problems and/or politics.
The firm provides inadequate support for growing their practice.
They want to reduce financial risk from current management.