PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2007
THE OLDEST LAW JOURNAL IN THE UNITED STATES
T O P L A T E R A L H I R E S
What Are the Biggest Obstacles to New Hires Fitting In?
BY GAIL W. RUOPP
Special to the Legal, PLW
A
fter all the due diligence is com-
pleted and the lateral attorney
joining the firm is as pleased as the
firm is to be accepting the lateral attorney,
there is another set of obstacles and chal-
lenges for the attorney and the firm to
overcome.
In 2006, our firm invited five share-
holders to join its ranks. This represented
20 percent increase in the shareholder
body, signifying the largest acquisition for
the firm in a one-year period. Each attor-
ney who joined the firm is unique. The
firm management has to understand that
each attorney will have different require-
ments. No two people or practices will be
alike. It takes much effort and time to
properly integrate lateral attorneys. All
members of the firm including support
staff have to participate in this integra-
tion.
After getting a clear picture of the
firm’s culture and compensation, new
attorneys strive to understand and grasp
how the firm operates. While they are
trying to understand their new environ-
ment, they simultaneously have to be con-
cerned about their clients and their sup-
port staff that joined them.
CLIENTS
Every lateral attorney who joins a new
firm has the similar challenge of transi-
tioning clients. Laterals are very con-
cerned about properly disclosing the
amount of their portable business.
Those clients that do decide to follow
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE LEGAL INTELLIGENCER
GAIL W. RUOPP,
executive director of Flaster
Greenberg, is responsible for
the management and direc-
tion of all administrative
areas including finance,
accounting, personnel, opera-
tions, systems, library, and
marketing. She is active in
the Association of Legal
Administrators (ALA) and the Philadelphia Chapter
of ALA. She can be reached by e-mailing
gail.ruopp@flastergreenberg.com.
an attorney to a new law firm do not want
to experience any inconvenience. They
want a seamless transition. In fact, most
expect to receive better service due to the
move. This obstacle is the most promi-
nent in the early days of a transition.
Once current clients have adjusted, the
obstacle disappears. However, clients will
always remain a top priority for the later-
al and now the new law firm.
SUPPORT PERSONNEL
An associate, paralegal and/or secretary
often joins a lateral attorney in a move.
The lateral attorney has an implied
responsibility to these individuals to
ensure that they will receive the appropri-
ate support and acceptance from their
new employer. Support personnel have to
fit into the new culture. If they do not, the
lateral attorney will feel responsible.
Laterals who require associate assis-
tance are burdened with interviewing
candidates, as it is difficult for them to
adequately describe the firm’s culture to
prospective candidates. Once the lateral is
with the firm for six months to one year,
the “support personnel” obstacle or con-
cern is reduced. Although lateral attor-
neys are always concerned about other
members of a firm, the initial angst is
gone.
ENVIRONMENT
When an attorney joins another firm,
he/she is burdened with understanding all
the nuances of that particular firm.
Institutional knowledge is many times
overlooked. A new attorney has to under-
stand whom the right people are to get
things done. The acquiring firm should
provide the attorney with a ‘point person’;
someone who has that institutional know-
how and can direct or assist the attorney
in quickly obtaining needed information.
New attorneys don’t always get the sup-
port they expect to receive from a new
firm with respect to their practices. They
have to fit into the new culture. However,
new attorneys are changing the culture
just by being there. As the culture is being
modified, the “institutional” attorneys
may push back in an effort to hold onto
the ”old way.”
When new attorneys join a firm in an
office location that is made up mainly of
new attorneys, the assimilation into the
firm is even more difficult. If it is geo-
graphically impossible to relocate a few
institutional attorneys to a new office, the
firm’s management and senior attorneys
have to make an effort to incorporate the
new attorneys into the firm by visiting
frequently and including them in many
management discussions.
If an attorney joins the firm in order to
create a new practice group, even more
challenges exist. The practice is consid-
ered “start-up” by attorneys within the
firm, clients and prospective employee
candidates. Senior management and mar-
keting personnel have to work closely with
a “start-up” practice attorney to ensure
success.
ADMINISTRATION
New attorneys have to be mindful that
the firm’s processes are sufficient for their
practices before they join an organization.
For instance, if a partner has large litiga-
tion cases and the firm is not ready to han-
dle proper litigation support, this partner
would be likely to question the firm’s
infrastructure to handle these matters.
Attorneys are inundated with paperwork
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE LEGAL INTELLIGENCER
and reports. New attorneys need only the
right information, not all the information.
It is incumbent upon the administration of
a firm to be selective about the informa-
tion it disseminates and to provide execu-
tive summaries rather than in-depth
detailed analyses. It is much easier on new
attorneys if reports, manuals and forms are
explained or partially completed. Partners
with a unique practice are concerned
about technology and the ability to hit the
ground running.
COMPENSATION
Partner compensation varies from firm
to firm. Partners may be leaving an
“employee” environment and entering an
“owner” environment. With all the transi-
tion that occurs during the first year as a
lateral attorney, the attorney also has this
unknown compensation and tax burden.
This is a very uncomfortable situation
and even more difficult to explain to a
spouse or partner. After a lateral goes
through one year of compensation, the
level of comfort will increase.
SUMMARY
It is no wonder that attorneys move
cautiously. Some lateral attorneys take
over a year to make the decision to take
the plunge. Such a move is extremely
stressful, and firms have to be aware of
these issues and do everything possible to
alleviate obstacles so the new attorneys
will flourish. •