Hire a partner who can carry the work.
We run confidential partner searches for regional and mid-size firms and for Am Law offices. Most of the partner seats firms bring us are about trial experience and capacity rather than a portable book, which opens the search to a much larger group of good candidates. Nothing goes to market with your name on it until you say it can.
- Most partner-level roles firms bring us don't require a portable book of business.
- Confidential from the first call. Your firm's name is released only when you approve it.
- Conflicts mapped against your matters before anyone invests time in interviews.
- Terms in writing before we start, and no cost until a partner accepts and begins.
The associate pool behind Am Law searches
Our associate pool includes associates from Am Law 100 and 200 firms. Am Law 100 and Am Law 200 firms already recruit through us.
- Am Law 100
- firms we recruit for, several in the top half
- Am Law 200
- firms we recruit for as well
- 14,000+
- lawyers at the firms we recruit for
- 45 states
- where the attorneys we represent practice
Mid-size and regional associates report medians of about $130,000 at 3 to 4 years and $150,000 at 5 to 7 years, with commercial litigation and corporate/M&A reporting more than insurance defense. At Big Law firms, the published scale runs $235,000 for first-years to $455,000 for eighth-years.
A portable book is not the requirement most firms assume it is.
In the regional and mid-size market, most partner hires come down to experience and capacity. A firm has more work than its current partners can carry, or it has lost the person who tried the cases, and it needs someone who can take a file from intake through verdict without supervision. Across the partner-level roles firms bring us, only a small share name a portable book as a requirement at all. Trial experience and a desk that runs itself are the more common asks.
Portability still drives some searches. An Am Law lateral partner move is priced on originations, and the firm will test the number in diligence before it prices anything. A named-partner seat or an equity stake usually carries the same expectation, because the firm is buying a practice rather than a pair of hands. Decide which hire you're making before the description gets written. If capacity is the answer, say so plainly, and the pool of strong candidates gets a great deal larger.
Name the seat, then clear the conflicts early.
Partner openings look alike on paper and behave very differently in practice. A succession hire for a retiring partner and a practice group lead read the same way in a posting, and they draw different people. Write down what the partner owns on day one, what they inherit, who they report to if anyone, and whether the seat is equity or non-equity. The table below is how we scope these with firms before going to market.
Conflicts belong at the front of the process. Run a candidate's client list against your open matters before the second interview, not after your firm has spent a month on someone whose largest client sits across from yours in three active cases. We map likely conflicts when we build the target list, so the obvious problems come off before you meet anyone. Integration deserves the same early attention. A partner arriving with clients needs origination credit settled in writing and someone inside your firm who will introduce them around. Associate support counts too, since a partner doing their own document review won't stay past year two.
| Partner seat | Who usually fills it |
|---|---|
| Trial partner | A senior litigator with first-chair verdicts, often a twelve to twenty year attorney at a firm where the trial work has thinned out and the cases now settle. |
| Practice group lead | A partner who has built or run a group before, or a strong senior partner at a larger firm with no seat opening above them. |
| Lateral partner with a book | An equity or non-equity partner whose client relationships are their own. Usually moving over rate structure, a conflict that blocks their growth, or a platform that fits the clients better. |
| Of counsel to partner track | A senior attorney at ten years and up who has the substance without the title, and will move for the title plus a defined path to equity. |
| Succession hire for a retiring partner | A partner or senior counsel in the same practice, brought in one to three years ahead so client relationships transfer while the retiring partner is still there to hand them over. |
Partner searches run longer, and they stay quiet the whole way.
An associate search closes in about five to six weeks. A partner search takes longer, because the pool at that level is small, the first conversations start slowly, and there is usually a client list or a compensation history to work through before anyone signs. Most of the partners we speak with aren't looking. They take a call because the practice fits, then they take weeks to decide. Firms replacing a partner who is still in the seat get the same discretion the candidate does.
Expect the candidate to arrive with questions before you ask yours. Partners want to know how compensation is set and who sets it, how origination credit is shared, what the equity tier requires and how long it takes, and where your rates sit against the clients they would bring. They ask about conflicts too, since a firm with a structural problem in their industry is a dead end for them. Have specific answers ready for the first meeting. A vague answer on compensation reads as a warning at this level, and we can't paper over it for you.
Do we have to require a portable book of business?
How long does a lateral partner search take?
How do you keep a partner search confidential?
When should we run conflicts on a lateral partner candidate?
What will a partner candidate ask about our firm?
How does the fee work when we hire a partner?
Thinking about adding a partner?
Send us the practice area, the market, and what the seat has to cover. We'll come back with a read on who's available and what it takes to move them.