It”™s a battle between lateral movement and new-grad talent in the race for law firm placement.
A “phenomenal” number of resumes are placed on Tom Hyland”™s desk each day.
Not all are accepted.
“It”™s a terrible market for these young lawyers,” said the managing partner of the New York office of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker L.L.P. “It must be quite discouraging for them, but we have a combination program. We hire laterals and kids out of law school, but as a percentage that has gone down.”
A lateral is an attorney with experience who may be looking to make a strategic move to another firm.
Those who have served in an attorney general, corporate counsel, justice department or appellate division clerk capacity are especially attractive to the firm, Hyland said.
Wilson Elser, as it is generally known, operates 22 offices including White Plains with 800 attorneys across the country. The firm just opened an office in West Palm Beach, Fla., which was a culmination of planned growth and the right opportunity.
Four attorneys from Fowler White Burnett left that Palm Beach firm to form Wilson Elser”™s newest ocean-side office.
“We go through a very extensive vetting process,” Hyland said. “We turn down more than we take in, but at the same time, we”™re always open to new business.”
Hyland said the firm is taking a look at 10 possible locations for future offices, although he would not disclose the geography.
When the firm considers an acquisition or lateral integration, “substantial client contacts” are a natural requisite, Hyland said.
Diversified skill sets are equally important.
“You now have global firms with international reach,” said Jon Dorf, founder and managing partner of The Dorf Law Firm L.L.P. in Mamaroneck. “Years ago, it was somewhat of an anomaly, but now there are about a dozen offices throughout the world that are looking for multilingual attorneys that have a background in international law.”
Particularly strong areas of practice include health care, energy and regulatory law.
According to the latest Hildebrandt Baker Robbins peer monitor economic index, demand was up 4.1 percent for litigation in the first quarter. Structured finance and mergers and acquisitions were up slightly, although general corporate work was flat with capital markets work declining by 1.2 percent.
The public tends to lump lawyers together, but what type of law they practice and where they practice it are very much inside-law concerns.
“I think the real estate arena and, therefore, the legal professionals and attorneys who practice in that area, have been disproportionately hit in different areas of the nation,” Dorf said. “The attorney in Las Vegas is more negatively impacted than an attorney practicing in New York.”
Within the last 18 months, Dorf”™s firm has hired six associate attorneys at his Westchester law firm.
The industry structure as a whole has shifted exponentially, according to Dorf. “There used to be a far more pronounced tier of mid-sized firms in New York City defined as firms having between 50 and 250 lawyers,” he said. “There are fewer of those types of firms now. Many of them have merged into larger or mega-firms.”
