February 27, 2024

Want To Be A Biglaw Equity Partner? Good Luck With That…

Becoming an equity partner is now harder than ever before.

“The bar is constantly getting higher and higher to become an equity partner at a law firm, and I don’t see that changing.”

—  Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., consulting firm CenterPeak, in comments given to the American Lawyer, on the difficulties associated with becoming a Biglaw equity partner. With billing rates higher than ever before, firms have been able to make more revenue, and thus more profits per equity partner. Some firms are still none too eager to share the wealth, which has given rise to the nonequity partnership tier across Biglaw.

February 25, 2024

There’s no doubt many firms put together outstanding financial performances last year. Still, many bottom lines are getting a boost from flat or negative equity partner growth.

Am Law 100 firms have kept a tight grip on the brass ring lately. While nonequity tiers have continued to balloon, the top-100 equity partner total slightly declined in 2023. And it appears that trend continued through 2024, whether it was due to retirements, lateral exits, de-equitizations, closer management of the partnership or all of the above.

Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., consulting firm CenterPeak, said whether firms have a nonequity tier or not, they’ve been making it more difficult to get a piece of the equity pie for decades. “The bar is constantly getting higher and higher to become an equity partner at a law firm, and I don’t see that changing,” he said in an interview this week.

Lowe, of CenterPeak, noted that record-high billing rates have helped firms make more and more revenue, leading to even bigger profit gains, even if they lose some business-generating equity partners each year.

February 19, 2025

As the Trump administration slashes the federal workforce, recruiters in the nation's capital say they've never seen more interest from government lawyers looking to make the jump to private practice — but navigating the market can be challenging for those who have built their careers in the public sector.

Jeffrey Lowe, the D.C. market president for CenterPeak LLC, suggests critically examining your skill set and determining how it matches up with the needs of the private sector.

"Someone might be the leading authority on a very obscure area of patent law, and while they might be the best person in the world at it, it might not be the kind of thing that a large law firm will do," said Lowe, who recently held webinars for government attorneys on how to approach the private market. "So spending time talking about that or highlighting that in a résumé or business plan would be counterproductive for them, because it won't translate into private sector experience."

February 14, 2025

With a wave of government lawyers crowding the job market in Washington, D.C., as President Donald Trump's early moves strike fear into the federal workforce, experts say law firms are taking their time weighing hiring decisions.

Patience is key for job seekers amid the upheaval, as firms are inundated with interest from lawyers in the federal government, recruiters told Law360 Pulse.

Jeffrey Lowe, CenterPeak LLC's market president for Washington, D.C., said the market for government attorneys is still "very, very healthy," but that the unprecedented level of interest means that firms are focusing more on high-profile candidates.

"It's very crowded, and I think those who aren't at the very highest positions in government will find it more challenging right now than we've seen in years past," he said.

For government attorneys unfamiliar with private-sector job hunting, meanwhile, Lowe recently held free webinars on how to approach the process.

"For many, this has been a bit of a crisis for them, and they urgently need advice about how to pursue a new job," he said. Many "haven't looked for a job in a long time and aren't familiar with how the market currently works."

February 13, 2025

Amid a flood of government attorneys hitting the lateral market, whether by choice or circumstance, law firms have their pick of lawyers with top public sector experience.

But as firms prepare for shifting demand under the new administration and long-term strategic planning, some lateral candidates from the government are having a tougher time getting placed.

The supply of candidates is also affecting negotiating power in lateral compensation and guaranteed pay. Some recruiters have even seen “slightly lower offers” for candidates coming from the government compared with offers in a traditional talent market.

Looking at the overall talent market, in light of market conditions, government candidates don’t have as much negotiating power in their compensation.

“It's definitely a buyer's market in most cases,” said Jeffrey Lowe, a D.C.-based recruiter at CenterPeak. “The people at the top of the food chain are doing very, very well, and will always do very well regardless of what the overall market is doing. As you move down the level of authority, I think it's been trickier for some this year than others.”

Lowe added that there are some people who are “seeing slightly lower offers than they might have in a traditional environment.”

February 11, 2025

Amid President Donald Trump's aggressive moves to slash the federal workforce, government healthcare attorneys are job hunting in the private sector en masse as they look to get ahead of potential layoffs and beat the crowd out the door.

These exit preparations among healthcare attorneys in government are just one part of a major upheaval happening across federal agencies.

Legal industry recruiters say the Trump administration's wide buyout offer; media reports about cuts coming to the Department of Health and Human Services; return-to-work mandates; and a pervasive fear of what's to come are all contributing to a major migration.

Jeffrey Lowe, a partner with CenterPeak LLC and the firm's market president for Washington, D.C., said many government attorneys started to try to find outside opportunities as far back as a year ago.

That number has "cascaded" since then he said.

"It picked up a lot of steam after the election and, given everything that is going on in Washington now, it's gotten even more crazy," Lowe said.

January 29, 2025

More than ever, former administration officials from Donald Trump's first term are in demand in Big Law, as law firms pitch to clients their expertise in navigating the government.

Corporate clients are looking toward Trump administration officials and attorneys with Trump ties for insight into his second term. And in some cases, those attorneys are able to leverage that experience on the lateral market, according to several recruiters.

To be sure, it’s not unusual for attorneys who have worked in prior administrations or on a certain side of the political aisle to leverage that experience when there is a shift in power in Washington.

Jeffrey Lowe, a D.C.-based recruiter at CenterPeak, said firms “want to get themselves set up to be ready for that kind of work when the transfer of power takes over.”

“So it's a very normal thing in Washington, and it definitely enhances the value of the people who are aligned with that political party or that prior administration,” Lowe added.

But the demand for former Trump administration lawyers now is a turn-around from several years ago. During and right after Trump's first term, observers noted a concern that connections to a polarizing president and controversial policies may make it difficult to secure a comfortable seat in Big Law.

January 25, 2025

Some recruiters in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the country expect an uptick in inquiries from government attorneys curious about opportunities in private practice as a result of President Donald Trump’s executive order ending remote work for federal employees, but this policy shift is likely just one of the factors likely to prompt these lawyers to start polishing their resumes.

Laura Terrell, a former Big Law attorney and White House counsel, said she believed “the type of law they practice” and “personal interests and priorities” will dictate whether lawyers in the various federal agencies will seek to move to a law firm.

“For example, there are attorneys that work in certain areas that may not be as conducive to translating into private practice,” Terrell said. “Attorneys, for example, that work in very specialized areas for certain federal agencies.”

But Raj M. Nichani, Esq., president of Atlanta-based recruiting firm The RMN Agency, said he believed the mandate will lead many federal government lawyers to seek work in the private sector because of an overall preference in the legal industry for hybrid work arrangements.

“The private sector has some flexibility [and] realizes that people can get work done at home,” Nichani said. “And not worry about the commute as much, the family obligations with child care, and things like that.”

Although the executive order was one of Trump’s first actions upon his inauguration Monday, it did not catch attorneys by surprise.

Jeffrey Lowe, a D.C.-based recruiter at CenterPeak, said he had heard from candidates prior to the executive order being instituted talking about the Trump administration’s potential in-office requirements for federal workers.

“I think people were ready for this to come down and have already started planning accordingly,” said Lowe

January 23, 2025

Honestly, I thought the RTO question had been resolved about a year and a half ago, when we ran our The New Normal? series, which aimed to make sense of what the future of in-office work in the legal industry looked like. The question mark was there to indicate that there was some room for movement, but really, all the reporting converged on the conclusion that hybrid work was here to stay.

Underpinning this conclusion is the reality that law firms are constrained by market forces. In a competitive arena for landing and retaining talent, it’s tough to put the flexibility genie fully back in the bottle. Given the premium workers now place on the ability to work from home periodically, it would likely take some degree of collusion with peers for most firms to successfully impose a five-day a week mandate, and I like to think that every law firm managing partner knows enough about antitrust law to rule this out.

Obviously, certain law firms have been clamping down a little bit. Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Ropes & Gray; Davis, Polk & Wardwell; Vinson & Elkins and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Latham & Watkins have all moved towards a four-day expectation, whether it's firmwide or certain offices. And Sullivan & Cromwell is now signaling five.

But all of these firms are in a position to offer market-topping salaries and bonuses to associates, along with a range of other perks that make the commute more palatable: “gym, laundry, cafe, free food,” as one Sullivan & Cromwell associate rattled off to my colleague Dan Roe. Even these benefits likely won’t be enough to stop some attorneys to “vote with their feet,” as Washington D.C. recruiter Jeffrey Lowe said on LinkedIn recently.

January 16, 2025

When it comes to compensation raises for counsel, they can end up in “no man’s or no woman’s land,” said Jeff Lowe at CenterPeak.

"Special” bonuses in the last month pushed up total associate compensation at many Am Law 50 firms, but it further complicated the pay arrangements for another tier of lawyers in firms: counsel.

When it comes to compensation raises for counsel, they can end up in “no man’s or no woman’s land,” said Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., consulting firm CenterPeak.

He said their pay doesn’t really track with associates or nonequity partners because some lawyers are seeking to remain in counsel positions, while others are trying to move up. Still, others may be brought in from the government or another firm, and their position is temporary, while other firms don’t even have counsel positions. In that context, it becomes difficult to evaluate or scale lawyers in the counsel spot.

“You have associates making almost $500,000, so in a sense, [counsel] get squeezed by firms because the firms feel like, ‘What options do we have?’” Lowe said. He added that, “Generally speaking, they’re less likely to have business than someone who has a partner designation, so that makes their ability to move more challenging.

They’re more senior so they can’t slot into the associate world at all. So it has to be a firm looking for someone with their particular expertise, and it’s just gotten to be more challenging as the years have gone by.”

January 14, 2025

Law firms are seeing complications in setting competitive pay for nonequity partners, as the number of so-called income partners rapidly grows.

Oftentimes, pay for nonequity partners can approach or overlap with compensation of senior associates, counsel as well as some equity partners, firm leaders and consultants say.

The questions are also challenging for those firms with new nonequity tiers, with several Am Law 50 firms adding them in the last few years.

“I think it is getting more complicated because you also have a different class of firm now wrestling with, ‘How do we compensate our nonequity partners?’ that never had to think about it before,” said Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C. at consulting firm CenterPeak. “You’ve seen over the last five years, in particular formerly single-tier firms moving to a two-tier system, so they have to continue to find that line to keep the partners happy. But they went to two tiers specifically to divert more compensation to the equity partners. So, it can be very tricky.”

With the path to partnership generally increasing in length, and more firms perhaps content to give out one-year bonuses instead of promotions to people doing good work, other firms are also noticing overlap in pay between lawyers in both the equity and nonequity tiers, “and it can be a real challenge,” Lowe said.

“Because for the people who are at the top of the nonequity scale, while it’s nice to be able to tell them they’re making more than some equity partners, it doesn’t necessarily make them that happy,” he said. “Because the key to being an equity partner are those years you beat budget and you end up with a kind of a bonus, without having to have done anything extra, because what you thought was going to be worth $1,000 a share is now $1,300 or $1,500 a share. There’s just a tremendous amount of money you can make as a consequence of being the equity partner.”

January 10, 2024

Recent news that Big Four accounting firm KPMG is seeking an alternative business license in Arizona that would allow it to operate as a law firm has industry experts wondering whether the move might spur the other three Big Four firms and others to also try and get in on the legal business in the U.S.

The potential impact to Big Law is not yet entirely clear, but some industry experts caution that KPMG's application in Arizona may inspire copycat actions or perhaps might even lead to the American Bar Association considering revising Rule 5.4, a longstanding professional rule in the legal industry that generally prohibits nonlawyer ownership of law firms, and one that has been under attack by legal reformers over the years.

Other legal industry analysts also said it may be too early to tell just how much of an effect KPMG's foray into the Arizona legal space might have on traditional law firms, even though the move may have the potential to inspire similar action by others.

"There's only so much you can do being an Arizona law firm, and it's only one of the Big Four," said legal industry strategist Brad Blickstein, of Blickstein Group. "If there's a moment where the Big Four is going to disrupt Big Law, this isn't it yet."

That sentiment was shared by Jeffrey Lowe, a legal recruiter with CenterPeak. Lowe said the Big Four accounting firms are a different animal than Big Law firms, and KPMG moving in on the legal action may not be as disruptive as some might imagine.

"Their business interests are so much more diverse than law firms are," Lowe said. "So, I think it's always interesting to see, but I don't think it's going to have a material effect on Big Law as we know it."

January 2, 2025

The great Perkins Coie & Hogan Lovells backdown on the bonus front has seen Big Law play chicken with their talent pool and boy, did it ever backfire.

In a world where associates are the lifeblood pumping through the veins of legal powerhouses, the annual bonus season is somewhat akin to a high-stakes poker game and when Perkins Coie and Hogan Lovells thought they could buck the trend and skimp on the special bonuses that have become de rigueur in the industry. Big mistake.

The backlash was swift and merciless. Associates, those sleep-deprived, caffeine-fueled workhorses, were not about to take this lying down.

In a move that surprised absolutely no one except perhaps the out-of-touch partners who made the initial decision, both firms executed a 180 faster than a first-year associate spotting a typo in a filing deadline. They caved, matching the market and sheepishly handing out the special bonuses.

But the damage was done. As Jeffrey Lowe, a recruiter who’s seen more legal drama than a season of “Suits,” pointed out, “The market can be a very cruel place.”

January 2, 2025

'The Damage Has Already Been Done': Top Firms May Struggle To Recover From Special Bonus Snubs

Biglaw associates may forgive, but they'll never, ever forget.

“When you consider the amount of money saved versus the amount of bad press you get and the general low morale of the workforce that you depend on, it becomes a very difficult situation. And I’m not surprised each time this happens that firms then go back and reconsider, and then come back and present the matching bonus.

The problem is the damage has already been done, and maybe associates have a short memory span, maybe they don’t, but it’s always hard to be the firm that doesn’t match and get singled out, and the market can be a very cruel place.”

— Jeffrey Lowe, a Washington, D.C.-based recruiter with CenterPeak, in comments given to the American Lawyer, on the change of heart that took place among leaders at Perkins Coie and Hogan Lovells with respect to special bonuses. Both firms originally declined to offer associates special bonuses, but finally caved after facing backlash.

December 31, 2024

“When you consider the amount of money saved versus the amount of bad press you get and the general low morale of the workforce that you depend on, it becomes a very difficult situation. And I'm not surprised each time this happens that firms then go back and reconsider, and then come back and present the matching bonus.”

 — Jeffrey Lowe, a Washington, D.C.-based recruiter for Center Peak, on the motivations for firms to reconsider their decisions on bonuses.

December 30, 2024

After facing backlash for initially opting not to pay special bonuses to associates, Hogan Lovells and Perkins Coie are changing course. The two firms are now offering special bonuses ranging from $6,000 to $25,000, depending on their class year, in addition to year-end bonuses.

It’s not the first time a firm has changed its mind about associate bonuses, and it likely won’t be the last. Backlash from associates, concerns from partners about losing key associate talent, and peer firm pressure are just some of the reasons why a firm may reverse a decision when it comes to associate bonuses, according to legal industry observers.

Washington, D.C.-based recruiter Jeffrey Lowe, of CenterPeak, said backlash is typically one of the motivators for firms to reconsider their bonus decisions.

“When you consider the amount of money saved versus the amount of bad press you get and the general low morale of the workforce that you depend on, it becomes a very difficult situation,” said Lowe. “And I'm not surprised each time this happens that firms then go back and reconsider, and then come back and present the matching bonus.”

December 23, 2024

Amid a U.S. presidential election year, lateral hiring in Washington, D.C., has been dominated by a steady flow of government attorneys transitioning to law firms' antitrust, white-collar defense, public policy, and litigation practices this past year.

While there has been a constant stream of firm hiring from the federal government throughout the year, moves from the Justice Department accelerated in the first nine months of this year compared with the last year, according to lateral move figures.

The number of government attorneys on the job market picked up entering the second half of the year, even before election results were in, according to several recruiters.

“It was already an outpouring. One of the biggest ones I've ever seen, probably the biggest. It started bigger and earlier than at any time before, and it’s only accelerated," Jeffrey Lowe, a senior managing partner at CenterPeak, said in a November interview.

December 18, 2024

Government attorneys have been inundating the job market in Washington, D.C., even before the election results were in. However, the overcrowded market is forcing some attorneys to take a pause on their search for the moment.

Resumes of President Joe Biden's political appointees who will be out of a job in January and high-level officials coming out of that administration will be at the top of the candidate pile at law firms, while midlevel and career attorneys are more likely to float to the back, according to several D.C. area legal recruiters.

D.C.-based recruiter Jeff Lowe at CenterPeak said he saw more candidates start their job search “earlier this year than in any of the previous 20-plus years,” followed by a “flood immediately following the election.”

December 17, 2024

With lower overhead and a focus on highly specialized work, several elite boutique law firms have topped Big Law associate bonuses this year. The increasing number of boutiques offering above-market bonuses in 2024 reflects the growing talent battle for top associates and the healthy demand for litigation and boutique business this year, analysts say.

More than half a dozen boutique firms have said that they will hand out year-end bonuses that will match or exceed the bonus scale set by Milbank, which formally kickstarted bonus season last month.

While it’s not a new phenomenon for some boutiques such as Selendy Gay and Wilkinson Stekloff to surpass the market year-end bonus scale in recent years, the small number of boutiques that are offering these eye-popping bonuses appears to be growing.

“I think we’re starting to see more do it,” said D.C.-based recruiter Jeff Lowe at CenterPeak. “It's a very deliberate move on the part of these firms to signal to the market and potential new members, ‘Hey, you come here ... you're going to make even more.'

December 12, 2024

The Swiss verein model for law firm combinations has benefited a handful of global firms looking to sustain growth and increase size and scale, but the fact that only a small number of firms have combined using the verein structure has experts wondering whether it is still a viable business strategy.

Furthermore, partners looking to move to another firm will not necessarily consider whether a firm is structured as a verein as a determining factor when deciding to make a lateral leap, one industry expert said.

"All they really want to know is 'How is this going to affect me personally, and will it affect the amount of money that I make,'" said Jeffrey Lowe, a legal recruiter with CenterPeak. "They're really looking more at the quality of the firm, so they're much more focused on the perception of the firm's profitability and prestige rather than the structure that they have."

December 11, 2024

As Donald Trump solidifies his top cabinet picks, a brewing concern for some law firms is staying off a so-called enemies list.

During his campaign, Trump was focused on Americans he believes have wronged or betrayed him. They are worse, he said, than foreign adversaries of the United States, calling them "the enemy from within."

“I think [law firm leaders] are always talking about things like this,” said Washington, D.C.-based legal recruiter Jeffrey Lowe at CenterPeak. “Whenever there's an administration change, and especially when people in an administration become very vocal about who they might feel are enemies to their administration, it's definitely something that would be concerning to any firm.”

Lowe added that some firms are more “cavalier about it” than others.

December 10, 2024

As law firms aggressively recruit laterals into 2025, don’t be surprised to see more hiring misfires, too.

Law firms are committed to a growth mindset for the foreseeable future, and they’ll likely make more internal promotions as well as more lateral hires because of it, industry consultants and analysts say. “That said, not all these lateral hires will work out,” say the authors of the 2025 Citi Hildebrandt Client Advisory.

While some firms are reluctant to say what their average is, it’s usually pretty easy for them to ascertain whether the bet they placed on a lateral is paying dividends, said Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., at CenterPeak. “One of the pretty nice things in the profession: it’s pretty easy to see where the work is coming from and where it’s not,” Lowe said.

He said firms in his experience very often use a straightforward, dollars-and-cents type of analysis to see if a lateral partner's business is bearing fruit. But some firms are still much more successful at it than others.

“Some have gotten much better about figuring out whether the book they say they have is there and it’s portable. Some firms are a lot better at it than others,” he said. “And there are some firms who get burned time and time again.”

December 5, 2024

The motivation for top lawyers to make top dollar may seem self-evident. Like elite athletes, many rainmakers are driven by being the best on their team (firm) or in their sport (practice). They know what they’re worth. They may want others to know it too. And they want to keep grinding until it becomes impossible.

But there are also top performers who work to live rather than live to work, recruiters and consultants say, high-achieving, high-earning partners heading toward an early retirement, and the era of skyrocketing partner pay across the industry is helping them make that happen.

“What’s developed especially over the last five years is the numbers are just so much higher than they ever were before that it’s becoming increasingly easier for people to get to whatever their number was,” said Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., at CenterPeak. “A lot of people have in their mind their number, and when they hit their number, they’re going to call it quits. So it’s easier to reach that number.”

Lowe said his group of course sees partners who fit the stereotype of workaholics, lawyers who love the job and lifestyle and couldn’t really conceive of doing anything else. But there’s another group of partners that Lowe said they hear about “quite frequently,” those who are very, very good at what they do, “but it’s not what they want to spend their entire life doing, and making a lot more money does give that option to retire from the practice that much sooner. And that can be very attractive to those people.”

December 3, 2024

Coinbase Global Inc. is warning its law firms not to hire any anti-crypto government lawyers or risk losing the company’s work in what could be a sign of things to come for Biden administration attorneys.

Threats like Coinbase’s aren’t anything new, but making a public statement about it is unusual, said Washington-based legal recruiter Jeffrey Lowe at CenterPeak.

“It might be something that a client will be telling its law firms privately, but to just put it out there just really draws a line in the sand,” he said.

Firms know when they hire certain people, whether they’re from an administration, a different firm, or a competing company know that they run a risk of there being a perceived business conflict with other potential clients out there, Lowe said.

“Which position do we want to take? Do we want to be pro Google, or do we want to be pro Amazon or pro Apple or Samsung?” Lowe said.

“These are all things that law firms are considering every single day and with the size of the companies and the kinds of engagements at stake, you can be talking easily tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue if you bet on the wrong horse,” he said.

November 20, 2024

Compensation system changes such as “black box” and “super points.” Bonuses for those who stay (and penalties for some who don’t). Ever-growing pay packages to attract–or retain–top rainmaking talent. A widening chasm between the highest- and lowest-paid partners firm to firm. The growing use of multi-tiered partnership and ballooning nonequity partner population.

All these factors and more have made for a tremendously dynamic environment for Big Law partnership in 2024–and the pace of the evolution shows no signs of slowing. How have firm leverage models shifted with the rise of nonequity partnership? How do firms navigate this (continuing) era of partner mobility and compensation growth? How should firms approach the lateral market while protecting the culture leaders have worked to create?

November 12, 2024

Legal recruiters in the nation's capital, used to seeing a bump in activity around presidential elections, say they have been fielding a rush of calls from government attorneys in the aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris last week.

"There was a sense, especially prior to [President] Joe Biden stepping away, that Trump was likely to win, and I think people were just trying to get a head start because you end up with a lot of people who look very similar on paper all competing for the same jobs," said Jeffrey Lowe, a partner with CenterPeak LLC and the firm's market president for Washington, D.C.

Still, plenty of people will stay put, as they have the attitude that, "This is just my job, I've seen administrations come and I've seen them go," Lowe said. And government lawyers who lean Republican are "excited about [the election results] because it gives them an ability to perhaps move up," he added.

November 7, 2024

Under a better deal market, law firm lateral movement in corporate practices, such as private equity, funds, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets, will likely pick up.

International trade expertise and talent could also be in high demand, said Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., at CenterPeak.

"There's no question international trade will be the big winner in all this because it's going to upset the apple cart," he said. "The trade practices have been riding a high since [Trump's] first election, and the very different policies that he enacted. It swung back to a Democratic-controlled presidency. Now, it'll swing back again. And I think the trade lawyers will be very, very busy for at least the next four years again."

October 31, 2024

While Quinn Emanuel continues to allow all attorneys to work remotely, other firms that had embraced out-of-footprint associates have shifted their stance.

One thing that didn't appear to be negatively affected during the era of remote associate work was law firm revenue. Millikan said Ice Miller has had steady profits for the past three or four years.

"It definitely didn't fall off," he said.

That sentiment was shared by other legal observers.

"We found by early summer of 2020 that the law firms not only were adapting, they were actually thriving in a virtual environment," said Jeffrey Lowe, a longtime Washington, D.C., recruiter now at CenterPeak. "To everyone's surprise, demand skyrocketed, and they had their best year ever in 2020, only to be far exceeded in 2021 when virtually everybody was working remotely, and all the firms got very comfortable with that and they were more than happy to hire the many associates that they needed wherever they could find them."

Add to this the fact that associates being hired during that time were landing signing bonuses of between $50,000 and $100,000.

But the pendulum began swinging back in 2022, Lowe said, as many firms started coming to grips with the fact that training new associates remotely was proving difficult.

September 20, 2024

Despite return-to-office resistance in Big Law, law firm management still retains the upper hand in mandating office attendance.

Some firm leaders are serious about reducing draws or limiting bonuses for partners who still aren’t coming to the office in the upcoming months. And when push comes to shove, they may be willing to let even high performers walk, noted multiple recruiters who work with big firms and have spoken with firm management.

Many firm leaders right now “would tell you they don’t have as much leverage as they’d like to have,” said Jeff Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., at CenterPeak, adding that partners with large practices still have “a tremendous amount of leverage.”

That’s one reason their attendance hasn’t been as robust as firms would like it to be. “And even though the firm is telling people you have to be here four or even five days a week, partners with substantial practices are saying, ‘Yeah, I know you mean that for some people, but not for me.’”

But Lowe said he’s spoken with a number of firm chairs who’ve said “this is gonna be the year where we really put up or shut up.” That could mean withholding a portion or percentage of a partner’s draw or reducing bonus pool eligibility, he said.

September 17, 2024

Trans-Atlantic law firm merger talks are continuing to take place behind the scenes, said law firm consultants, with U.S. law firms looking to build scale globally, and U.K. firms attracted to profits from the world’s highest-priced markets.

For some U.S. firms, growing scale and depth is beginning to feel like an imperative, noted Jeffrey Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., at CenterPeak, in an interview.

He also said that’s the case with many U.K.-headquartered firms. The trans-Atlantic merger talks are taking place as Am Law 50 firms such as Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Kirkland & Ellis continue building in Europe.

“There’s certainly a sense in the Magic Circle firms that they have to get with the program as well,” Lowe said. “Because these firms, very profitable firms, have come into London and are throwing a lot of money around, and there, like everywhere here, you can’t ignore it any longer. It’s not going to abate, it’s only going to get stronger.”

September 12, 2024

Global law firm Hogan Lovells will close its offices in Poland, Australia, and South Africa as it focuses investment in other markets.

A total of 123 lawyers and support staff will be let go as part of the closures, which will take place in the coming months, a Hogan Lovells spokesperson said Thursday.

Redirecting investments from costly offices to higher-rate markets is “good business” for firms, legal recruiter Jeffrey Lowe said. Lowe serves as the Washington, DC, market president for legal recruiting firm CenterPeak.

“International offices in particular have been a challenge for domestic US firms,” Lowe said. “It costs a lot of money to get an office off the ground. You need a certain amount of scale, and you need lawyers and administrative personnel. So, firms pull back and ask, ‘Should we be here?’”

Lowe predicts the wave of Big Law office closures will continue for several years as firm leaders look to free up capital to afford increasingly expensive lateral talent. “What’s going to unfold in next five years is battle for very expensive talent and the money has to come from somewhere,” he said.

September 10, 2024

Am Law 50 law firms are separating from the pack in revenue and demand. But several law firms in the Second 50 are gaining scale quickly through game-changing mergers, becoming more competitive with the top firms.

Industry analysts have said the desire among firms to do mergers specifically is because, if you’re outside the top 50 at least, it’s harder to grow through laterals without being dented by attrition of your own.

It also comes from client pressure to show practice depth and specialization as well as have critical mass in desirable markets. And don’t discount peer pressure, either, said Jeffrey Lowe, senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., at CenterPeak.

“There’s definitely a sense that, if we don’t do anything, we’re going to get left out,” Lowe said in an interview. He added: “Before, it was, ‘Maybe we need to merge, maybe we don’t.’ It feels like more of an imperative now than in previous iterations of this.”

September 9, 2024

Jeffrey Lowe adds a Washington, D.C., stronghold to CenterPeak’s presence in New York, California and Texas.

Six months after announcing their combination, law firm partner recruiting firms Lippman Jungers and Johnson Downie established a presence in Washington, D.C., with the hiring of Jeffrey Lowe, the former global practice leader of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s law firm practice group.

Lowe left Major Lindsey last August to launch his own recruiting firm after founding the Washington, D.C., office in 2003.

In an interview, founding partner Sabina Lippman said hiring Lowe was a natural evolution of the firm’s plan to become the “one-stop shop” for the Am Law 20 and the Am Law 50. “We always knew Jeff was the lead recruiter in Washington, D.C., so he was always in our strategy ever since we linked up with Clint’s group.”

August 23, 2024

“So many firms in their [Wilmer's] tier have gone there before them, which in a way makes it much easier for every successive firm to follow,” said law firm recruiter Jeffrey Lowe about Wilmer’s decision. “

July 24, 2024

Some law firms trying to hold on to their partners are using money to discourage departures.

One tactic is to withhold accrued compensation for departing partners.

Withholding accrued compensation is “a real pain point for the partner that’s looking to leave, because unless the new firm is willing to make them whole, they can lose a lot of money by moving laterally,” said consultant Jeffrey Lowe of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, in an interview with Law.com.

Another tactic is to require departing partners to cover unpaid bills, Lowe told the publication.

“So let’s say a partner did work for a client and sent a bill for $250,000, and that bill remains unpaid. I’ve seen firms say they have a claim against that partner’s unpaid compensation and capital amount, in the amount of the uncollected,” Lowe said.

July 19, 2024

Law firms are increasingly using lateral departure deterrence methods, such as punitive non-competes or debits for unpaid bills, legal industry sources say.

Jeffrey Lowe, consultant and founder of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, also said it’s “not uncommon” for firms to have restrictions on partner departures that are similar to Kirkland’s, adding the amount of pain inflicted on a leaver varies.

Lowe said some firms use payouts that are very backloaded, while others are close to pay-as-you-go, and a partner can duck out without risking much at all. For context, Kirkland equity partners already had 55% of their annual comp deferred until the following year.

Regardless, “in my experience, it runs the gamut, and it’s not just applied to a sector of the Am Law [200],” Lowe said.

July 17, 2024

“It’s a real pain point for the partner that’s looking to leave, because unless the new firm is willing to make them whole, they can lose a lot of money by moving laterally. And so much has to do with what time during the year they move.”

–Jeffrey Lowe, founder of Jeffrey Lowe Partners and formerly the global leader of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s law firm practice group, on policies adopted by firms, including Kirkland & Ellis, that give the firm the option to withhold departing partners’ accrued compensation.

July 17, 2024

Withholding equity partner compensation comes with risks to a firm’s culture, although the practice isn't new in Big Law, recruiters say.

The new withholding policy tends to disincentivize equity partner moves, said consultant Jeffrey Lowe, founder of Jeffrey Lowe Partners and formerly the global leader of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s law firm practice group. “It’s a real pain point for the partner that’s looking to leave, because unless the new firm is willing to make them whole, they can lose a lot of money by moving laterally,” Lowe said. “And so much has to do with what time during the year they move.”

June 21, 2024

As some firms grew at slower rates in light of repressed demand on the transactional side, others added to their benches to meet clients’ litigation needs.

“I would describe firms as cautiously optimistic for the rest of the year. I think they’ll add people where they need. I don’t think they’re gonna go crazy spending money on things that are purely investments versus things that match their business plan,” said Jeffery Lowe, a law firm recruiter and managing partner of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, in an interview.

One seemingly sure bet is that increased demand within litigation practices is not likely to go away this year. How that translates into hiring and financial returns is yet to be determined.

“I think there’s definitely a sense that there’s going to be continued increase in enforcement, from the various regulatory authorities, and that’s certainly good for litigation practices,” said Lowe.

June 19, 2024

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a firm founded in Texas and with one of the largest lobbying practices in Washington, is looking elsewhere as it seeks to compete with top law firms.

New York restructuring partner Abid Qureshi and London dealmaker Daniel Walsh will take over as co-leaders of the firm next year, Akin announced Tuesday. They replace Kim Koopersmith, the litigator who has steered the firm for more than a decade.

The firm is plucking its next crop of leaders from two high-revenue producing practices—bankruptcy and corporate transactions—as many of its competitors ramp up investments in those areas.

“It’s either get with the party or potentially get left behind,” said Jeffrey Lowe, a Washington legal recruiter. “But I think Akin has been pretty good at navigating it.”

May 31, 2024

What started as a trickle of general counsel retiring and then finishing out their careers at law firms has expanded into a growing number of senior in-house counsel leaving their companies for private practice. And not only in part-time, of counsel positions, but often as full partners.

"This is definitely a trend that you're seeing," Jeffrey A. Lowe, founder and managing partner of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, which primarily recruits for big law firms, told Law360 Pulse on Thursday.

Lowe said that, in the past, an occasional general counsel would go back to a law firm. "But the train really used to run only one way forever. Then, over the last few years, we've seen this start to change."

May 30, 2024

Law firms looking for talent are in a strong spot right now. The reverse is true for prosecutors thinking about leaving.

“I can tell you I’ve never seen it as busy this early in the election cycle since 2003,” said Jeffrey Lowe. “Starting about three to four months ago I started seeing a level of activity that I typically don’t see until much closer to the actual election and particularly from the DOJ.”

May 30, 2024

"These are the cases that firms dream about, where they can throw an incredible amount of resources at it, because the stakes are so incredibly high," said law firm recruiter Jeffrey Lowe.

A cadre of Big Law firms—including Williams & Connolly, Cravath Swaine & Moore, Latham & Watkins, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Kirkland & Ellis—are taking on some of the biggest antitrust battles against U.S. regulators, representing clients such as Live Nation, Apple, Google, Amazon and Kroger.

April 29, 2024

In the battle over origination credits, some clients are vying for more transparency and a say in who gets the credit.

Jeffrey Lowe, a law firm recruiter and managing partner of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, called it a “delicate situation.”

“Sometimes clients will try to influence the process. And depending upon who the client is, they might be successful or it could be met with a very unhappy law firm who would feel like you should mind your own business,” Lowe said in an interview.

April 3, 2024

In today’s episode, we continue in our recruiting series and discuss partner recruiting and compensation with Jeffrey Lowe, founder of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, one of the top partner recruiters and advisors in the United States.

Jeffrey shares his journey from practicing law to recruiting, the importance of partner compensation knowledge, and provides insider advice for lawyers considering lateral moves.

March 15, 2023

“It’s obviously problematic because it’s easily the most difficult job at the firm,” Jeffrey Lowe, founder of legal recruiter Jeffrey Lowe Partners, said. “Very few people want to do it and many of those who want to do it aren’t really qualified to do it, so you end up with a qualified pool that’s really quite small.”

March 5, 2024

The ongoing disciplinary case against the founders of Tully Rinckey PLLC over restrictions the firm placed on departing attorneys is an unusual one, but experts say it's still an important reminder for lawyers to be mindful of the ethical considerations of their employment agreements.

January 23, 2024

Covington & Burling is one of the few BigLaw firms that don't use billing or origination credits in determining compensation.

Law.com spoke with firm recruiters about Covington’s approach. Recruiter Jeffrey Lowe, managing partner at Jeffrey Lowe Partners, told the publication that not using origination credit is fairly unusual within the Am Law 100, which consists of the nation’s top 100 grossing firms.

January 22, 2024

The firm’s model of not having billing or origination credits is “pretty unusual” within the Am Law 100 and is an integral part of the firm’s “stellar” reputation, according to Jeffrey Lowe, a law firm recruiter and managing partner at Jeffrey Lowe Partners.

“There are some firms who might say that they do it, but when you talk to their partners, they don’t really do it,” said Lowe.

January 18, 2024

The way it’s been explained to me by every firm that has a closed system is it is so much easier to keep people happy when they can’t see someone is making more than them even though they have more in originations.

— Recruiter Jeffrey Lowe, in comments given to the American Lawyer on why some Biglaw firms use a black-box compensation system for partners. This compensation model is in the news thanks to a recent decision by Paul Weiss to move its partners to a black box. Lowe offered that there may be “danger” in making such a move, as doing do may cause “fear and paranoia” among attorneys. “People choose to believe the worst and operate under that assumption,” he said.

January 16, 2024

“It is so much easier to keep people happy when they can’t see someone is making more than them even though they have more in originations,” said Jeffrey Lowe, recounting the message he hears from firms with opaque compensation models.

December 27, 2023

While law firms in D.C. may have been more cautious with hiring, sustained demand for regulatory and enforcement practices have also had a positive effect on firms' profits.

Antitrust, international trade, and FCPA enforcement practices were other hiring focuses in D.C. this past year, Jeffrey Lowe, managing partner of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, said in an interview, noting the Justice Department’s “greater emphasis on enforcement.”

December 14, 2023

Dentons, after rapidly becoming the world’s largest law firm in less than a decade from its founding, now faces a test that can vex a legal operation of any size—a transition from first-generation leadership.

Jeffrey Lowe, managing partner of legal recruitment firm Jeffrey Lowe Partners, LLC, lauded Portnoy and Andrew for building the biggest law firm in the world. He said Dentons, like other large firms, had naturally transitioned away from its founding leaders.

“It’s a firm that has outgrown its leaders,” Lowe said, “but I mean that in a good way.”

December 12, 2023

Most of the law firms that have confirmed matches to the latest associate salary scale have PEP above $2 million a year and more than a billion dollars in gross revenue.

Lowe, of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, also suggested there might still be additional compensation “surprises” as firms continue to “duke it out” before the year ends. Susman Godfrey may have registered just such a surprise by announcing Monday it will pay year-end associate bonuses ranging from $140,000 to $360,000 — tripling the Big Law scale at the upper levels — and also pay associates at the new, higher market salary scale next year.

November 30, 2023

At least 70 law firms, mainly across the Am Law 100, had gone up to $215,000 or more in the previous round of associate salary hikes.

Jeff Lowe, of Jeffrey Lowe Partners, said the amount of time that elapsed between Milbank’s announcement was “unusual,” but he added that even in boom times, firms aren’t always crazy about raising pay.

Yet, the competitive nature of the industry, the pressure from associates and the public, and the fact that the firms are so profitable dictates the move to raise pay to a new market scale, and “I don’t think we’re done yet,” he said this week. “If history is any guide, I think there might be a few additional surprises over the next couple of weeks as the firms duke it out.”

November 22, 2023

They’ll wait to see what the other firms are doing. But I would be surprised if they didn’t quickly follow suit.

It’s just more of a collective mentality among law firms. They feel the need to be matching what the top most profitable firms are doing to remain competitive for top law students.

— Jeffrey Lowe, founder of the consulting firm Jeffrey Lowe Partners

November 20, 2023

Law firms founded in the DC region aren't expected to be "leading the charge" in raising associate pay and matching, but they will be heavily influenced by what their peers in New York do.

November 15, 2023

It’s been more than a week since Milbank ratcheted up the associate salary scale and still no other big firm has publicly matched the move. It’s conceivable that silence is still a proverbial calm before the storm, some analysts and consultants say.

October 23, 2023

The study results have the potential to shift how firms coach, enable, measure, and incentivize partners’ business development efforts, the report authors say.

October 19, 2023

The top end of partner compensation in the Capital region now reaches between $15 million to $20 million.

October 16, 2023

Lateral attorney moves in the first three quarters of 2023 have fallen for the second year in a row, though the volume of lawyer moves continues to significantly outpace 2020 and the years leading up to the pandemic, two recent surveys of the legal hiring market show.

October 11, 2023

Still, other law firm leaders are expressing concerns to partners about meeting budget, according to area legal recruiters.

September 29, 2023

Wilmer, Sidley, King & Spalding, Skadden and many others in Big Law are advising corporate insiders, companies, financial firms and others caught up in the SEC's latest enforcement actions.

Sepetmeber 21, 2023

Lengthy, multiyear guarantees could be becoming a thing of the past.

September 18, 2023

If your firm is in the Am Law 100, the odds are good that the moves affect you and your firm, according to some veteran recruiters.

August 29, 2023

Visiting attorneys may go through a different vetting system than U.S.-educated associates, as some law firms recruit visiting lawyers from international law firms that they have existing relationships with.

August 24, 2023

Major drugmakers have assembled an army of top attorneys from the nation’s most prestigious firms to take down Medicare’s drug price negotiation program, hoping to take advantage of experience gained in health litigation, arguments before the Supreme Court, and policymaking inside the federal government.

August 22, 2023

Bill, Baby, Bill ... But Don't Forget To Enter Your Time -- Or Else!

“I practiced law for nearly 15 years and hated timesheets as much as the next person. But it’s just critical it be done on a daily basis. So I’m not surprised law firms are being more aggressive in requiring it and penalizing people, especially in this associate market, which has shifted….”

August 22, 2023

Sidley Austin's memo to associates about late time entries highlights that law firms are tidying up billing and collections procedures amid a slower demand environment.

August 18, 2023

Biglaw Partners *Still* Don't Want To Go Back To The Office - “I just don’t believe you’re going to get some partners and senior partners sitting in an office again. Ever.”

— Jeffrey Lowe, founder and managing partner of a new advisory firm, Jeffrey Lowe Partners, in comments given to the American Lawyer on Biglaw’s mandated return-to-office plans, which he says are still being met with resistance by partners.

August 18, 2023

"With forced exits and continued staff attrition wreaking havoc on the depth and breadth of both skills and experience, are firms fundamentally compromising the quality of a support structure?" a recent report asks.

August 16, 2023

Jeffrey Lowe will be joined by former Paul Hastings official Don Currin in the new venture, Jeffrey Lowe Partners.

August 15, 2023

Jeffrey Lowe and Don Currin intend to focus their efforts on partner placements at Am Law 50 firms.

August 7, 2023

"It's going to be very, very difficult for the Washington firms to get people in more than three days a week," said Jeffrey Lowe at Major Lindsey.

August 7, 2023

The New York law firm's office growth underscores the challenges and opportunities of transitioning from a smaller outpost in D.C. to one with litigation, corporate and regulatory capabilities.

July 31, 2023

Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s latest lawyer addition — Jeffrey Rosen, former acting U.S. attorney general — highlights the law firm’s emphasis on hires with top government experience to fill out its Washington, D.C. office, bolstering its pitch to institutional clients to handle their regulatory work.

July 10, 2023

Paul Hastings, Baker Botts, Cleary Gottlieb, Wilkie, Proskauer, Boies Schiller, Mintz, and Barclay Damon all announced additions in their Washington, D.C., offices this week.

June 26, 2023

The 400 largest law firms in the U.S. saw continued growth last year, outpacing 2021's headcount additions, with surges in hiring among midsize firms accounting for a meaningful portion of the increases, according to the most recent Law360 ranking.

June 23, 2023

Law firm collections are "slower relative to what we've seen the last couple of years," said Jeffrey Lowe, of Major, Lindsey & Africa.

June 15, 2023

“Virtually every firm that I’ve spoken with has pegged three [days in the office] as their ideal and they’re all really struggling. They’re finding that their partners especially really do not want to come back into the office and they’re not quite sure what to do with it.”

June 14, 2023

A slowdown in demand due to market uncertainty and a cooling talent market has put more power back into the hands of law firm leaders with more firms becoming more explicit about office attendance.

June 1, 2023

While ex-judges still represent a small fraction of BigLaw hires, legal recruiters, former judges and other experts say a mix of factors — rising paychecks at large firms, falling judicial prestige, pandemic stress — is likely leading to more wandering eyes.

May 22, 2023

Allen & Overy’s merger plan shows how law firm consolidation has ramped up in 2023 as big and middle-size players worry about losing share to industry giants.

“There’s a fear of being left behind,” said Jeffrey Lowe, a partner at legal search firm Major Lindsey & Africa. “People see their competitors taking action and they may ask themselves, ‘Why aren’t we doing that.’”

May 12, 2023

While antitrust hiring at law firms has slowed since last year after a BigLaw hiring spree, industry experts say demand remains steady in the face of an aggressive enforcement climate.

April 18, 2023

Jeffrey Lowe featured in analysis of the 2023 AmLaw 100:

The growth in 2022 may not indicate a permanent shift. Jeffrey Lowe, global practice leader of the law firm practice at Major, Lindsey & Africa, says that if firms had a mulligan, they might make different decisions in terms of bringing on or promoting new equity partners. “But in some places, they were making good on promises that were made when things were flush,” he said.

April 14, 2023

Jeffrey Lowe Named to Lawdragon's 2023 Global 100 Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting. These leaders represent the remarkable array of advisors who have helped the legal industry grow into a global business generating hundreds of billions in revenues.

April 11, 2023

Despite enduring tropes about the BigLaw grind, U.S. lawyers are pretty content with their professional lives, giving high marks in a new survey for firm paychecks, billable hour targets and harmonious work cultures.

April 7, 2023

The US legal services sector suffered its first monthly employment decline since September 2022, with the industry losing 600 jobs in March 2023, according to new data from the Labor Department.

April 7, 2023

While most of D.C.'s largest law firms grew revenue, several saw dives in profits, due to rising expenses and slower demand.

April 7, 2023

The U.S. legal services sector lost 600 jobs in March, new Labor Department figures showed on Friday, marking the first monthly employment decline for the industry since September.

April 5, 2023

Lawyers and staff at big law firms are continuing to face layoffs as global deals take a dive and client demand falters.

March 3, 2023

When a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission official joined Eversheds Sutherland last month, she brought with her lasting relationships with individuals from the agency — who since have responded to certain questions and concerns that she has presented to them from her in-house clients.

March 1, 2023

The number of law firms with a growing equity partnership—and some of the sharp gains in these equity ranks—stand out in an environment of slower demand.

December 12, 2023

Law firm leaders are heading into 2023 with caution, anticipating a tighter budget in preparation for a prolonged period of economic challenges.

December 5, 2022

It's no secret that law firms compete on profitability and reputation when building prestige, but in today's competitive legal landscape, those qualities aren't enough to set a firm apart from competitors.

October 24, 2022

Law firms are still pushing for employees to come back to the office but many attorneys are ignoring the mandates. Two recent studies analyze the likely impact of policies on hiring. Should firms really care if productive lawyers want to work remotely?

October 20, 2022

During the recent lateral hiring frenzy, some firms have found a way to keep key partners from leaving. For a while, anyway.

October 19, 2022

Average annual pay for U.S. law firm partners reached $1.12 million in 2021, as heightened client demand buoyed firm profits, according to a report released Tuesday by Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA).

October 19, 2002

For the first time, Law360 and Major, Lindsey, and Africa team up to survey BigLaw partners in their 2022 Partner Compensation Survey.

October 18, 2022

The gender pay gap between male and female partners also shrank significantly, with women’s compensation increasing at a greater rate than that of their male counterparts

October 18, 2022

Average partner compensation at midsize and large law firms has risen by 15% over the last two years, surpassing $1 million for the first time, but there is still a large cohort of partners less than thrilled with their paychecks, according to a new report out Tuesday.

October 15, 2022

Jeffrey Lowe, global practice leader of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s Law Firm Practice and author of the survey, will be joined by Aebra Coe of Law360 to walk through the report.

September 29, 2022

When it came time for her January performance review, O., a senior associate at a white-shoe law firm in New York, had some idea of what would happen. She'd done good work, but she was billing around 1,600 hours a year, far less than the busiest lawyers do.

September 13, 2022

The Justice Department’s antitrust division is ramping up hiring of trial attorneys from Big Law firms as the Biden administration heightens its focus on competition amid a surge in mergers.

September 12, 2022

It's time to do even more work -- if there's any available, that is.

September 12, 2022

The current order of business is to trim talent acquisition costs and focus on building core competencies, but "stealth layoffs" remain a possibility.

September 12, 2022

Biglaw firms now find themselves in a rather curious spot in our post-pandemic world. While 2021 and the start of 2022 were marked by frenzied hiring, pay raises, and bonuses galore, the tail end of 2022 is looking a little gloomier.

August 31, 2022

Litigation moves drove lateral partner hires in California through the first half of 2022, as firms embraced more flexible work and enticed former government lawyers to join their ranks.

August 26, 2022

When U.S. corporations are accused of establishing monopolies or misleading investors, attorneys specializing in antitrust and securities law step in to settle the score.

August 22, 2022

More than a dozen attorneys have left the Securities and Exchange Commission over the last few months. What is driving the talent exodus from the SEC?

August 19, 2022

When a group of three partners and a client relations manager left Littler Mendelson last year to join Polsinelli, it seemed like a typical lateral move.

August 9, 2022

Major law firms’ checks of potential hires for conflicts of interest are becoming so extensive that they often slow the recruiting process and sometimes sink employment deals altogether.

July 19, 2022

While there was broad disappointment about a decline in pro bono work last year, some are hopeful that a confluence of events this year will lead to a rise in service in 2022 and beyond.

July 15, 2022

Latham, like Kirkland and a few other Big Law juggernauts, is in the enviable position of almost always being a top recruiter of talent, no matter the economic conditions.

July 13, 2022

A new U.S. law cracking down on forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China poses major compliance obstacles, according to attorneys focusing on supply chain issues and human rights.

July 11, 2022

“The floodgates are open, and will remain open for as long as possible,” said Major, Lindsey & Africa's Jeffrey Lowe.

June 16, 2022

Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), the world’s leading legal search firm, announced today that six of its partners—Deborah Ben-Canaan, Robert J. Brigham, Melba Hughes, Jacquelyn Knight, Jon Lindsey and Jeffrey Lowe—have been recognized by Lawdragon in its 2022 Global 100 Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting guide for their achievements in legal recruiting. This is the sixth annual Lawdragon guide, which relies upon submissions, journalistic research and peer vetting. This year’s guide recognizes 48 percent women and is 13 percent inclusive.

June 7, 2022

Cravath Swaine & Moore’s move to Washington is set to shake up the local legal market as elite firms look to stockpile lawyers with regulatory chops.

May 18, 2022

The tension could alienate clients, cut into law firms’ profits and force talent out the door.

May 9, 2022

Major, Lindsey & Africa announced today the launch of its 2022 Partner Compensation Survey, the seventh biennial study of partner compensation conducted by the firm. The survey is the creation of Jeffrey Lowe, who has authored all seven editions.

April 29, 2022

More litigation funding outfits are pushing into Washington, D.C., with the arrivals of Validity Finance and Omni Bridgeway in recent months, in what legal industry experts say reflects a growing acceptance of the funding mechanism both in the nation's capital and across the U.S.

April 27, 2022

As major law firms have distributed profits to partners after a busy 2021, they're under increasing pressure to pay their rainmakers a bigger slice. That means less is left over for partners lower in the ranks.

April 26, 2022

Firms are already looking at stealth layoffs as demand tails off, one recruiter said.

April 26, 2022

The tension could alienate clients, cut into law firms’ profits and force talent out the door.

April 25, 2022

“In filling any of our needs on the lawyer side, particularly when it comes to partner expansion, we always first look in-house,” said one firm's C-level talent manager.

April 21, 2022

The fast rise of Kirkland and Latham signals how these firms are moving closer to a business model rivaling a corporate client. But many law firms are not trying to keep up.

April 14, 2022

Having never imagined earning this much money early in their careers, Am Law partners are retiring early or reducing their time commitment.

April 14, 2002

Jeffrey Lowe, Global Practice Leader and Law Firm Practice Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office, and Ru Bhatt, Partner in the New York Associate Practice Group discuss the hiring in the legal market during the pandemic, and predict what we are likely to see in the near term.

April 8, 2022

Initial public offering proceeds fell to at least five-year lows in the first quarter as the Ukraine invasion and a volatile stock market lessened appetites for share sales.

February 15, 2022

2021 was a year like no other in legal recruiting. Law firms found themselves locked in a battle to recruit and retain lawyers in all practices, particularly in corporate and litigation.

February 7, 2022

Some firms are known for specializing in one area of the law or the other. And then there are firms that are considered a "total package," that distinguish themselves by being well-rounded.

January 25, 2022

Many of the biggest, most profitable law firms are continuing to get bigger. But that doesn't mean there's less room for smaller firms to occupy a leadership position in a set of practices or with a standout culture.

January 10, 2022

Jeffrey Lowe knows a thing or two about the legal market. He is the Global Practice Leader of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s Law Firm Practice Group where he represents high-profile law firm partners and groups and high-ranking government officials.

January 5, 2022

Jeffrey Lowe is known as one of the top legal recruiters in the country and has been consistently named to Lawdragon’s “Global 100 Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting.”

December 15, 2021

Government lawyers enjoy great perks—generous benefits, better job security, more predictable hours, and the intangible benefits that come with serving their country. But if and when the time comes to move to private practice, it is important to be strategic about your move.

December 13, 2021

In firms today, associates want to work on meaningful projects that require more than just basic legal skills. They also want to feel that their strategic thinking and contributions are truly valued by the firm and by the partners with whom they work.

December 8, 2021

An industry that once attributed many of its best qualities to its dedication to pay partners based on seniority is down to just two strict adherents to the so-called “lockstep” compensation system after Cravath, Swaine & Moore adjusted its model on Monday to fend off poaching.

December 6, 2021

In most of corporate America, getting fired or laid off happens in a quick meeting with HR. But at Big Law firms, "managing out" is common, with lawyers given a long runway to leave.

December 1, 2021

Kirkland & Ellis, the largest law firm in the U.S., told its attorneys Wednesday that it would shorten its share partnership track from 10 years after law school to nine, a spokesperson for the firm confirmed to Law360.

November 2, 2021

In the red-hot law firm hiring market, firms are increasingly luring in-house attorneys away from corporations.

August 31, 2021

Big Law Firms are experiencing a labor crunch that’s transforming how they do work, even as they bump up pay and staff to relieve the pressure.

August 26, 2021

"There’s just been a whole lot of money pumped into the economy. Corporations have been sitting on a lot of capital," said one consultant.

August 4, 2021

Law firms don't want their office return plans to get derailed by outbreaks, or even just the fear of spreading the virus, analysts and leaders say.

July 27, 2021

Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), the world’s leading legal search firm, announced today that five of its partners have been recognized by Lawdragon in its 2021 Global 100 Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting guide for their achievements in legal recruiting.

July 23, 2021

An interagency government committee that conducts national security reviews of foreign investments has played an increasingly active role in recent years, fueling a battle among top Washington, D.C practices for attorneys versed in working with the panel, which has a reputation for operating in a “black box:

July 19, 2021

Right now firms are just feeling like, ‘We don’t really have that much of a choice.’ And I think the lawyers realize that and are going to be pushing for as much as they can get.

July 19, 2021

Morgan Stanley’s chief legal officer, Eric Grossman, has reportedly warned the investment bank's outside law firms that their lawyers should return to the office to avoid a decline in client service.

July 19, 2021

Morgan Stanley's letter to law firms has the potential to create even more tension within firms and may cause "some attorneys to vote with their feet," one law firm consultant says.

July 19, 2021

Fighting large corporate breakups is becoming big business for law firms.

July 16, 2021

Many associates are waiting to see what the return to the office looks like come September.

July 15, 2021

Floating remote weeks could become a permanent hold-over and perk from the pandemic era, especially if firms don't keep the two- or three-day office week forever.

June 16, 2021

The revolving door is as much of a Washington tradition as National Mall fireworks on the Fourth of July—people hold prominent government positions and then step into lucrative and often prestigious outside roles. More than 80% of top lawyers in Trump’s administration have landed somewhere since he left office, even if their roles are part time or not their first choice, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Law.

June 9, 2021

No law firm has hired more officials who served during the Trump administration than Jones Day, with at least a dozen this year identified by Law360 Pulse, and the hires continue even now, five months after the end of the former president's term.

April 26, 2021

Protecting Your Legal Career During a Time of Great Disruption: Jeffrey Lowe, the Global Practice Leader of Major Lindsey & Africa’s Law Firm Practice Group and the Managing Partner of their Washington, D.C. office joins host Richard Levick of LEVICK to discuss what makes a great law firm and in house candidate, particularly today, in a time of extraordinary disruption.

March 18, 2021

These firms "had all the cases that were being put off, plus the new ones that were naturally coming through the system,” Jeff Lowe, global managing partner at legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, said.

March 17, 2021

Recruiting efforts both inside the federal government and among major corporate defense firms are beginning to provide a snapshot of what the antitrust space could look like during President Joe Biden's tenure in the White House.

February 19, 2021

Leaner firms are studying profitability, but they may be using different tools or considering additional factors.

February 17, 2021

According to a new survey, 28% of Chicago partners are dissatisfied with their compensation—well above the national average.

January 28, 2021

Financial success in 2020 was no guarantee of a healthy culture, but a healthy culture can help law firms weather tough financial times—at least to an extent.

January 27, 2021

There’s no guarantee a firm's top laterals will stay, as in the case of Jim Woolery, who joined King & Spalding in May 2017, only to exit last fall.

January, 26, 2021

When environmental lawyer Jeffrey Bossert Clark resigned from his roles leading the U.S. Department of Justice's environment and civil divisions less than a week before former President Donald Trump's term ended Jan. 14, he did not have a new job lined up.

January 25, 2021

The lateral market dried up when the pandemic hit, falling 30% compared with 2019. But recruiters and opportunistic firms were as busy as ever by year's end.

January 21, 2021

Jeffrey Lowe, global practice leader of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s Law Firm Practice and author of the survey, together with colleagues Meredith Frank and Karen Andersen, provided a one-hour overview of the results of Major, Lindsey & Africa's 2020 Partner Compensation Report.

January 18, 2021

In the ongoing quest to remain profitable, law firms are starting to get tough with partners—even rainmakers—who have grown accustomed to operating inefficiently.

January 11, 2021

For some administration officials with a role in controversial policies, a return to private practice won't be so simple.

January 6, 2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, law firms also continue to adapt their practice offerings by redirecting their resources from less demanding practices to areas that address clients' most imminent pandemic-related needs.