Transcript
"Are lateral hires at big law firms from other big law firms?"
No. Lateral law firms from big law firms can be from small law firms or even be from large law firms. I've even seen solo practitioners hired at big law firms laterally."
It just depends on the practice area. So one example is patent law. Patent lawyers before they become patent lawyers, are typical engineers. Engineers make a lot of money. They many times go to law school at night. Because they're going to law school at night, they won't get the best grades. Because they don't get the best grades, they don't always get into the best law firms when they graduate from law school or who knows. Or they're engineers, they think in terms of finances and go to the cheapest law firm law school they can. A lot of times, a patent lawyer will come out of school and then won't be able to get jobs at big law firms. But after a year or two of getting experience in a small law firm, a substantial number of them, even if they had seasoned law school, will get hired by big law firms because they have the experience and they ready to go.
Anytime you have a niche practice area, which would be something like different types of tax law, different types of very rare types of litigation, people working in healthcare for the government or FDA related work. Many times they don't have any law firm experience when they're hired. And if they do have, many times, it's from smaller firms or even hospitals. Lateral hires at big law firms don't always come from other big firms. The most important thing is if you do want to get hired from a big firm, eventually it's important that you're as specialized as possible.
The more specialized you are, the better. And as you get more senior, as you get more senior, the more business, the better. Everything is a race. When you get out of law school, the people that have the best schools and the best grades are always ahead. Over time, the person that pulls ahead they have a very discrete practice area. They can very quickly pull ahead in terms of quality work. That is the most important component.
