Where your practice is actually going
We ask about your five-year plan before we ask about your last twelve months. Which clients are growing, which are consolidating, and which relationships are genuinely yours to move.
For Attorneys
Your Practice, Positioned for What's Next.
Every conversation starts confidential and stays that way until you decide otherwise.
The Process
What working with us actually looks like.
Six stages, from the first confidential conversation to a check-in a year after you start. The timeline moves on its own, or point at any stage to read it in your own time.
A conversation, not a pitch.
Everything begins with a private conversation about where you actually stand. We want to understand what is prompting you to look, which client relationships are genuinely yours to move, how your practice is likely to develop over the next five years, and what you would need a platform to do that yours is not doing today. We are equally interested in what you would refuse, because that narrows the field faster than anything else. You will not be asked for a resume in this first conversation, and nothing said in it leaves the room without your explicit permission. Most of the attorneys we eventually place were not actively in the market when we first spoke to them.
Step 01
Initial Interest
A conversation, not a pitch.
Everything begins with a private conversation about where you actually stand. We want to understand what is prompting you to look, which client relationships are genuinely yours to move, how your practice is likely to develop over the next five years, and what you would need a platform to do that yours is not doing today. We are equally interested in what you would refuse, because that narrows the field faster than anything else. You will not be asked for a resume in this first conversation, and nothing said in it leaves the room without your explicit permission. Most of the attorneys we eventually place were not actively in the market when we first spoke to them.
Step 02
Due Diligence
We go and find the fit.
Rather than circulating your materials and waiting to see what comes back, we go looking on your behalf. We work our relationships with practice group chairs, lateral hiring partners, and managing partners to establish which firms are genuinely investing in your practice area right now, what they have actually committed to fund, and how their rate structure would sit with your particular clients. We also test the things that quietly undo a move a year later: conflicts exposure, overlapping client relationships, whether the compensation system rewards what you are good at, and whether the seat you would fill is one the existing partners want filled. What reaches you is a short list with reasons attached, not a long list with hope attached.
Step 03
Meeting the Firm
Straight to the hiring partner.
We bring you directly to the lateral hiring partner and the practice group chair. Not a recruiting coordinator, not an HR screen, and no waiting while your materials work their way up the chain. Because those relationships already exist, there is none of the back and forth that normally stretches a lateral process across many months. We arrange and sequence each meeting so that you build momentum instead of repeating yourself, brief you beforehand on who you are seeing and what genuinely matters to them, and brief them properly on you so the conversation starts well past your bio. Between rounds we gather candid feedback from both sides and tell you exactly what we hear, including the parts you would rather not hear.
Step 04
Negotiation
Where the outcome is decided.
This is the stage that determines what the move is actually worth, and the one you should least have to handle alone. We know what your practice commands in the current market, what comparable laterals have cleared at similar platforms, and where each firm still has room to move. We negotiate the entire package rather than the headline number: base and target compensation, origination and billing credit, the length and structure of any guarantee, title and partnership track, associate leverage, and the practice support you will need to deliver what you have promised. Because we make the argument on your behalf, you never sit across the table advocating for your own value, which is both uncomfortable and, in our experience, markedly less effective.
Step 05
Placement and Offer
The paperwork, read properly.
We work through the offer letter and the partnership or employment documents with you line by line, and we model the full economics against what you have today rather than comparing headline figures. We flag the terms that matter later and are easy to wave through now: how a guarantee unwinds, how credit is allocated on shared matters, what happens to your compensation if the practice ramps more slowly than projected, and the reach of any restrictive covenants. We then advise on the mechanics of leaving well, which means notice timing, conflicts clearance, client consents, and file transfers handled in the right order. By the time you sign, the transition plan already exists and everyone involved knows their part in it.
Step 06
Post-Lateral Follow Up
We stay involved after the start date.
A placement is not successful because an offer was signed. It is successful when you are thriving on the new platform three years later and the firm counts the hire among the best decisions it made. So we stay in contact through your first year and well beyond it, confirming that the platform delivered what it promised, that client transitions completed cleanly, that the support you were offered actually materialised, and that the integration is working from both directions. If something is drifting we would far rather hear it early, while it is still a conversation and not yet a problem. That follow-through is also a large part of why firms keep taking our calls.
What We Go Deep On
Portables and billing rates are the last thing we discuss.
Any recruiter can read your bio. The work that determines whether a move succeeds happens well before a firm ever sees your name.
Client rate sensitivity
A practice that thrives at one rate structure can stall at another. We map your clients against the rate profile of every platform we introduce you to, because the wrong fit here undoes everything else.
The resources you need to do the work
Associate leverage, specialist support, conflicts posture, industry teams, and geographic reach. If a firm cannot resource your practice properly, the economics will not save the move.
Your personal energy
Not every good move is the right move. Some attorneys need a bigger platform. Some need out of an untenable partnership. Some are simply tired. We would rather know that than not.
Selective by Design
We only introduce you to firms that want to invest in your growth.
Before your name goes anywhere, we know what the firm is building, what it has committed to fund, and whether the partners you would sit alongside actually want you there. A platform that is merely willing to take you is not a platform worth moving to.
That filter means you hear from us less often than you would from a volume shop. It also means that when you do, the conversation is worth your time.
Total Confidentiality
Nothing moves without your explicit permission.
Your materials are never sent to a firm you have not approved by name. We do not circulate resumes, we do not maintain a searchable candidate database for firms to browse, and we never use one candidacy as leverage in another search.
Most of the attorneys we place were not looking when we first spoke. Protecting that position is the entire foundation of the relationship.
Who We Work With
Every class year, every level.
- Associates, 2nd year and up
- Counsel and of counsel
- Income partners
- Equity partners
- Full practice groups
Questions
The things attorneys ask us first.
Completely. Your name and materials are never sent to any firm without your explicit approval for that specific firm. We do not circulate resumes, we do not post profiles, and we do not use your candidacy as leverage in unrelated searches. Most of the attorneys we work with are not actively looking when we first speak.
Nothing. Our fees are paid by the hiring firm. You will never receive an invoice from us, and our compensation does not come out of your offer.
For associates, the process typically runs six to ten weeks from first conversation to signed offer. Partner and group moves take longer, often three to six months, because they involve business plan preparation, conflicts clearance, and economic negotiation. We move at the pace that protects you, not the pace that closes fastest.
No. We place associates and counsel with no portable business at all, on the strength of their practice, their training, and their trajectory. For partner-level moves a portable practice matters more, but we regularly place partners whose value is institutional relationships, succession, or a specialty a firm cannot hire elsewhere.
We run searches nationwide from our home in Newport Beach. Our most active markets are Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Miami, Washington DC, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Charlotte. If you are targeting a market outside that list, we can usually still help.
Ready to start a confidential conversation?
Tell us where your practice is today. We will take it from there.
Apply Confidentially