Maximizing Law Firm Growth: Unlocking the Full Potential of Marketing in Strategic Lateral Hiring

In a market where competition for top legal talent is fierce, law firms can no longer afford to treat lateral hiring as a standalone HR function. It’s time to bring marketing to the forefront of lateral recruitment — unleashing its power to attract high-caliber candidates, amplify the firm’s brand, align hires with strategic goals and drive tangible growth. For legal marketers, this is a game-changing opportunity to redefine their role as essential partners in talent acquisition, unlocking unprecedented growth potential for the firm and transforming lateral hiring into a strategic advantage.

Lateral hiring is one of the most powerful levers for growth, yet it’s often isolated from the firm’s overarching business development strategy. Decipher Investigative Intelligence data reveals that lateral partners bring an average client portability rate of 57%, meaning that most of their clients are expected to follow them to their new firm. Let’s examine how lateral hiring stacks up against other business development initiatives.

• Requests for proposal (RFPs): BTI Consulting reports that post-pandemic RFP win rates hover at 26%. Even worse, 70% of companies report no significant change in their legal counsel lineup within a year of the RFP process.
• Cross-selling: While results vary widely from organization to organization (and partner to partner), overall, law firms often struggle to cross-promote their client relationships. An Altman Weil survey found that 75% of managing partners rated their firms as “poor” at cross-selling.
• Brand-building: Results are as varied as the tactics and execution involved, but organic growth can take years — and the statistics aren’t promising. Average conversion rates for marketing communications tactics peak at 4.47% for email and drop to 1.64% for organic social.

Lateral hiring, by contrast, is a faster and more reliable growth strategy. A joint study by LMA and Bloomberg Law reveals that an overwhelming 82% of legal marketers are not engaged in lateral recruitment — a staggering missed opportunity.

Here's how legal marketers can become indispensable to lateral recruitment success.

Right Now

Establish close relationships with the firm’s key growth decision-makers: managing partner, chief talent officer, director of lateral recruiting and practice group leaders. My most transformative work has been rooted in strong collaboration with the talent team, underpinned by support from firm leadership. When marketing and talent teams work together, they can drive the growth results law firms urgently need, achieving them faster and more effectively.

Before a Hire

Embed marketing into the firm’s talent strategy. To avoid “random acts of hiring,” every law firm should have a talent strategy that articulates exactly the types of laterals it wants to pursue. Engage with your talent team to find out exactly what that looks like. You will then be in a position to offer your insight and assistance when it comes to questions such as:

• What geographic regions does the firm want to grow?
• What industries or practices are critical to the strategic plan?
• Who are the dream clients?

Clarity in these objectives is critical when executing business development and marketing plans — practice, industry or office. Everyone will be more successful the more you are aligned and informed.

Leverage marketing to strengthen the firm’s talent brand. Legal marketers can craft a unified brand language that consistently positions the firm as a premier destination for top talent. By using specific, impactful language across all platforms — website, social media, and recruitment materials — marketing can ensure that prospective laterals understand the firm’s unique culture, values and strengths. Cohesive messaging reinforces a recognizable identity in the market, creating a distinct perception of the firm as an aspirational place to build a career, thus boosting its attractiveness to high-caliber lateral candidates.

During a Hire

Deploy competitive intelligence to verify lateral candidates’ client and performance claims. While not a replacement for formal due diligence, marketing can enhance the evaluation process by examining candidates’ past successes, press coverage and industry rankings.

Participate in candidate interviews. Marketing can ask questions that lawyers often can’t, offering valuable insights into whether a candidate is being honest or exaggerating their relationships and book of business.

Go above and beyond. High-impact laterals want to know whether the firm is equipped to fuel their growth. Marketing can craft tailored pitches for candidates — complete with detailed biographies for key support members, relevant practice materials and highlights — to signal the firm’s commitment to supporting their success.

After a Hire

Prepare a smooth landing. Facilitate a rapid, comprehensive onboarding. Drawing from insights gathered during recruitment, prepare key materials — such as biographies, press releases, social media posts, and client communications — in advance. This proactive support accelerates new lateral integration and fosters a positive first impression. LMA has a helpful lateral communications checklist here.

Activate a robust integration plan throughout year one. A well-defined road map with measurable milestones for the first year ensures laterals become fully embedded within the firm, driving immediate results and long-term impact. Refer to this LMA infographic, which provides sample tactics from week one through the end of the first year.

The ROI of Legal Marketing in Hiring

Lateral hiring is the single largest source of revenue growth potential for AM Law 200 firms, with 97% relying on it. In today’s fiercely competitive market, lateral hiring is more than just filling seats; it’s a powerful, strategic driver of firm-wide growth. By integrating marketing and business development expertise throughout the entire lateral recruitment process, law firms can unlock the true potential of their investment.

For legal marketers, the opportunity to shape firm growth through lateral hiring is immense. By stepping into this process as strategic partners, you can elevate your role beyond traditional marketing, becoming integral to attracting top talent, enhancing firm competitiveness and driving sustained growth.

Lateral hiring needs your expertise in brand positioning, market intelligence and strategic alignment to truly thrive. Seize this moment to demonstrate the unique value marketing brings and lead your firm toward a future where every lateral hire strengthens not just the roster, but the firm’s market presence and profitability.

Learn More About Business Development with the Third Edition of the LMA Body of Knowledge The content in this feature correlates with the Business Developmentdomain in the LMA Body of Knowledge (BoK). Dive deeper and access the latest edition of the BoK online. The Third Edition of the LMA BoK showcases enhanced expertise across every domain, introduces new competencies in Client Services, Communications and Technology Management, features more advanced skills across all domains and broadens coverage of competitive and business intelligence skills. Plus, it emphasizes a stronger commitment to nurturing diversity, equity, and inclusion across the entirety of the BoK. Learn more.