Economic Meltdown Spurred Record Number of Partner Lateral Moves
The number of partners moving to or from the nation’s top 200 law firms jumped 10.6 percent last year, reaching an all-time high.
The American Lawyer tallied the numbers for the year ending Sept. 30, 2009. The publication found that 2,775 partners left or joined the biggest firms in the country. The top backgrounds of laterally moving partners were: 17 percent in litigation, 15 percent in banking and finance, 10 percent in corporate, and 9 percent in intellectual property.
“It appears that the economic meltdown actually contributed to the vigor of the lateral market last year,” according to a press release on the findings. “Some firms saw a buyer’s market and decided to go shopping to upgrade their talent pool, while others used the crisis as an opportunity to clean house at the partner level.”
K&L Gates had the most lateral hires, due in part to its acquisition of Bell, Boyd & Lloyd. Sonnenschein, on the other hand, had the largest percentage of partner departures. But both firms saw significant movement both ways. K&L Gates had 157 hires and 33 departures, while Sonnenschein had 56 hires and 37 departures.
