Many of the law firms you see today are growing. Partners are choosing to leave their firms and join better opportunities elsewhere. There are many reasons why partners leave their home firms, according to Pace Law Firm. One of the biggest is that large law firms are willing to offer far better pay and incentives to leave to lawyers who have a ton of expertise and wins under their belts. The transition isn’t as easy as you may think, though. Here are some common issues that face people who are transferring to a new law firm as partners.
The Lack of a Book
Do you have a book of business with multiple cases recorded in it? If you do, good for you. There are many partners out there who spend a lot of time at their current firm working under the thumb of a managing partner or practice leader. They spend more of their time working on the book of this partner than on their own. When the time comes to leave, their own book will be severely lacking in cases even though the partner has a significant amount of experience helping clients out.
Mergers Lead to Confusion
A merger between two firms can lead to significant profits for both the firms but can also cause a large amount of stress for the partners involved in the transition. If you are involved in a merger between your firm and another, you need to be ready to transfer your clients over immediately. If you don’t, there is a possibility that your practice will be excluded from the newly formed firm simply because you don’t have anything concrete to contribute to the firm.
New Billing Rates are Low
This issue is all too common for partners moving over to a new firm, especially when the new place is larger than the old one. You might often find that your billing rate is cut back from what it used to be. However, there is a way out of this. Your new firm will probably be quite open to working your rate up when you have shown that you are worth it. It involves a lot of hard work, but the result is that your new rate could be significantly higher than it used to be.
Conflicts With Clients in the New Firm
There is one nightmarish situation that can arise when you move to a new firm – client conflicts. If your current firm has clients you are still representing in court whose opposing counsel is employed at your new firm, you’re likely to be excluded from most cases until these conflicts are resolved. Some firms will allow you to build a Chinese Wall between yourself and the opposing counsel while still working together, but most will strictly enforce the “no conflicts” rule.
There are plenty of other issues that face lawyers that are transitioning from one firm to another for whatever the reason is. Almost all of them can be overcome with a little elbow grease and a lot of dedication to your work.
