Law Practice
Aug. 6, 2002
Jumping Ship
No lawyer is an island, and behind every law firm partner are associates who work to keep that partner's practice afloat.
No lawyer is an island, and behind every law firm partner are associates who work to keep that partner's practice afloat.
When partners jump ship from one firm to another, they often are forced to contemplate whom among the many associates they should take to the new firm - and whether it would be a breach of fiduciary duty to offer the invitation.
Associates who see their primary partner set sail for another firm are faced with a difficult and delicate situation: "Should I stay or should I go? And if I decide to go, how do I do it?"
Associate Lysha Weston, who left Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich in 1998 to help a group of breakaway partners form employment firm Paul, Plevin, Sullivan & Connaughton in San Diego, found that the transition process put her out on a limb.
Weston, who learned in a Gray Cary office meeting that the partners she spent most of her time working for would be leaving soon, wondered why they didn't ask her to come along and whether they "respected her as an attorney."
"And then I took a step back and thought about the legal aspect of it all, and I thought ... they owe fiduciary responsibility of partners, and they're probably inhibited in even speaking to associates," Weston says.
She decided, instead, to tell firm managers that she planned to ask the group of departing partners to take her with them. But of course, if the partners didn't want her to go, Weston would be in a bind.
"Then, I've just put my current employer on notice that I'm not 100 percent happy here," she says. "It was an awkward situation."
Luckily, Weston landed safely at her new firm. But her dilemma is one of many that face California associates every time their primary partners leave for greener pastures. Partners' fiduciary duties can make the process sticky and full of suspense.
"Officially, there can't be any contact," Los Angeles legal recruiter Sandy Lechtick says, "no solicitation by the partner while he's still a partner."
Sometimes that means the partner must wait until he or she is at the new firm before making The Call to chosen associates, Lechtick says. But in other cases, solicitation is fair game immediately after a partner resigns.
"At some firms, there's sort of a policy that a partner tells the management that he's not going to solicit associates. However, if the associate solicits the partner, then that's another story," Lechtick says.
And there are many reasons why associates may want to hop to the new firm, regardless of how they get there.
"Once the partner leaves, associates are generally exposed, naked and vulnerable," Lechtick says.
For instance, there's always the chance that the leaving partner is taking most of the associate's work to a new firm.
"If the associate doesn't leave with the partner, then often he's vulnerable, or she's vulnerable, because there's not enough work," Lechtick says.
In addition, if the associate isn't asked to come along to the new firm, partners at the former firm may wonder whether the associate's work is subpar.
"If they're not asked to go with the partner, it begs the question 'Why not?'" Lechtick says.
Sometimes, the answer is simply that the partner's book of business is not large enough to convince another firm to take on the expense of new staff - which needn't reflect poorly on the left-behind associate, according to Lechtick.
Some associates, of course, are not left behind but choose not to go. Los Angeles legal recruiter Jill Strickstein says that, although their primary allies may have left the firm, these homebody associates are in line for brownie points.
"If you turn down an offer to join, if anything it's just a brown-nosing effect at the first firm," Strickstein says.
Plus, staying put could look better on an associate's résumé in the long run, she says.
"Movement these days is not a plus. It's better if you stay put. And so following a partner to a firm is only a good idea if it involves a significant change in your status or in the money that you're going to earn or in the career growth potential," Strickstein says. "It's better to just not move around so much."
Of course, not every associate even has the option to move to the partner's new firm. For many, the leap is just the equivalent of a lateral move - accompanied by a strong letter of recommendation from the newly acquired partner.
Associates still have to interview with the new firm, law firm managers say, and the associates will have to interview well, and their law school credentials will be examined.
"We basically apply the same standards as we do for associate hiring in any circumstance," says Rick McKnight, managing partner of Jones Day Reavis & Pogue's Los Angeles office. "We look first and foremost at the quality of the lawyer, and then we assess our need for the quality lawyer."
If the partner has a clear need for the associate's help, the firm is more likely to bring the younger lawyer on, McKnight says. And of course, the new partner can vouch for the quality of the hopeful candidate.
The Jones Day hiring practice often involves writing samples and résumés and sometimes checking with judges who are familiar with the associate.
In unusual circumstances, associates who think they are jumping to Jones Day all by themselves will have one of their partners for company. McKnight says the firm has found itself interviewing more than one person from a given firm.
"We'll be talking to an associate that won't know that a partner he or she is working with is talking to us, and vice versa. It's happened several times," McKnight says. "It may be that the associates and the partners are reading the same tea leaves."
But each firm is different. At rapidly expanding Gordon & Rees in San Diego, associates will have an easier time making the cut, as long as the mobile partner recommends them. Gordon & Rees managing partner Miles Scully says the firm will give great deference to the wishes of a partner, especially a partner who brings lots of hours that need billing - say, a $1 million book of business. The firm's San Diego office has added 30 attorneys under Scully's direction.
"They come over, and basically, I treat them like their own business - they're a subsidiary of Gordon & Rees. As long as they run their business well, I defer to them on decisions of who they're going to hire, how much they're going to pay and the like," Scully says of the new partners.
"They would have to run it by me and approve it, but I give a lot of deference," he adds.
Incoming partners know who the best associates were at their former firm, Scully says, and have an interest in choosing only the cream of the crop to come along with them - the theory being that successful associates will help a partner be successful.
And in the leagues of successful associates, one stands out and leads the army.
"Typically what I find is a partner with a book of, say, over $750,000 usually has a lieutenant that they want to bring with them, someone who has been instrumental in helping them build their book of business," Scully says.
Scully is not alone in his findings. Strickstein also has noticed that the one associate sure to travel with a partner is the one whom the clients are familiar with.
"Usually, they take their right-arm man," she says.
And large groups of partners moving to large firms sometimes may take more than one right-hand man, depending on how many lawyers have had close contact with important clients.
At larger firms, Lechtick says, "generally it's going to be both deeper and wider relationships with the client base, which supports several people as opposed to just one."
But no matter how large the firm, it's best to make a departing partner think he or she can't live without you, Scully says.
"The key for any associate in this type of situation, or for general success, is to make yourself indispensable," Scully says.
Katherine Gaidos
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