The National Association of Legal Search Consultants, an organization consisting of outside legal recruiters, recently released its Uniform Lateral Partner Questionnaire seeking to streamline a key feature of the due diligence process in the recruiting of partners. (TMG is not a member of NALSC.)
Overall, this is a positive development. As explained in the organization’s summary, each LPQ requires hours of partner time to complete and often calls for information that is either difficult or impossible to retrieve without raising suspicions. That time is exponentially increased when partners are considering multiple opportunities and are faced with either additional or even inconsistent inquiries.
However, the chances that this document is adopted by either most or all of the major law firms is slim and none. Every law firm uses their own nomenclature and definitions and analyzes key financial metrics differently. One key example is the concept of realization, which seeks to determine how efficient an attorney is in turning work products into dollars. There are at least three different ways that firms define realization — one comparing total collections to the standard rates and billable hours of attorneys (whether or not there are pre-mandated discounts for certain clients or matters), a second comparing collections to the billable hours and rates dedicated to each matter (taking into account pre-arranged discounts), and a third just comparing the collections to what was actually billed to the client. As one can readily gather, these percentages can be vastly different.
NALSC basically punted on the issue, merely asking the candidate for their realization rate and how their current firm defines the metric. Given that each firm will want to have a comprehensive picture of billings and collections, I’m not sure that this question will be particularly useful. Moreover, most laterals will not be able to answer the latter question with any specificity.
While we are unlikely to see a uniform LPQ anytime soon, NALSC’s work does move the ball forward a bit. The document will likely be reviewed by many firms, who may decide to alter their forms to either clarify some questions or add entirely new ones. And it will serve outside recruiters by allowing them to share the form with their candidates on the front end, so that those attorneys can more easily anticipate the key questions that they might be expected to address.
Those interested in more insights into the lateral recruiting process should check out Steve Nelson’s podcast, Steve’s Rules, available on Spotify and Apple. Steve will delve more deeply in the Uniform Lateral Partner Questionnaire in an upcoming episode.
