Empire Search’s Northern California Partners Natasha Innocenti and Suzanne Kane contributed to The American Lawyer‘s 2023 law firm lateral hiring market analysis, which included insights on the most in-demand practice areas, the most active geographies, and the most common desires among lateral candidates.

Both Natasha and Suzanne added comments on the lateral partner market in particular. They joined many other surveyed legal recruiting authorities in concluding that lateral law firm partners are still very much in demand in 2023, though in certain practice areas there may be more scrutiny, especially over books of business. “Firms are not as open as in recent years to take a risk or make many investment hires. They are willing to take advantage of the less busy time to fill long-term needs that have been challenging to fill in recent years, such as capital markets or M&A, even if those lateral partners are not as profitable in the first year,” said Suzanne. “Technology clients may be doing less deals at the moment, but it’s not disappearing and it will be back, so firms would be wise to recruit that talent in this market when they may be more competitive than in recent boom years.” Natasha, in considering the impact of those recent boom years, said, “One thing that keeps law firm leaders up at night is how to reorder partner compensation after three years of unprecedented growth.” Natasha added, “No partner wants to be taken down in compensation, but sometimes that needs to happen. Doing so without breaking glass is very tough.”

Check out the full article originally published on The American Lawyer: All You Need to Know About the Lateral Hiring Market in 2023