WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following a 30% decline in 2020 due in large part to hiring pauses in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, lateral hiring rebounded at an unprecedented rate in 2021, according to analyses of NALP’s Survey on 2021 Lateral Hiring. Overall, lateral hiring was up by 111% compared to 2020, the largest year-over-year increase since NALP began tracking these data 23 years ago. While increases were noted across all categories of lawyers, the lateral associate market was particularly hot, increasing by nearly 149% in 2021. As a whole, lateral hiring was up across all firm sizes, regions, and cities included in the survey, although a few markets experienced declines in partner lateral hiring. NALP’s 2021 analyses cover aggregate hiring information on nearly 7,700 lateral lawyers in 480 offices/firms.
The overall volume of lateral hiring was up 110.9% compared with 2020 in these same offices/firms, with a median of 6 and an average of 16 lateral hires per office/firm. Associate lateral hiring was up the most, at 148.5%, while partner lateral hiring increased by 42.8%.
The average number of lateral associates hired per office/firm in 2021 was about 11 and the median was 4 compared to an average of approximately 2 and a median of 1 for lateral partner hires. Lateral associate hiring accounted for 69.2% of lateral hiring in 2021 and lateral partner hiring accounted for 14.7%. Other lateral hiring comprised 16.1% of lateral hiring.
Among offices reporting activity for a single office, offices averaged from 0.8 to 1.4 lateral partner hires depending on firm size, whereas associate lateral hiring averages ranged from 4.4 to 6.8 per office. While overall lateral hiring was up across the board, offices in firms of 251-500 lawyers experienced the largest increase in lateral hiring (137.9%), and offices in firms of 250 or fewer lawyers had the smallest increase (79.3%).
The level of lateral hiring per office was highest in the Northeast, with a median of 10 and an average of 18 lateral hires in 2021. In terms of aggregate volume change, volume was also up the most in the Northeast region (177.5%).
Among cities with at least 10 offices reporting, overall lateral hiring was up the most in Houston (191.4%).
While overall lateral hiring and associate lateral hiring were up across all firm sizes, regions, and cities/states included in NALP’s analysis, this was not the case for partner lateral hiring. Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, the Denver area, the Miami area, Philadelphia, and Portland, OR all observed drops in lateral partner hiring. Regionally, partner lateral hiring was up the most in the Northeast (112.1%) and Mid-Atlantic regions (88.6%), while all other regions experienced more modest growth.
This was the first year in which NALP asked about hiring lateral lawyers located outside of the firm’s geographic area and allowed to work remotely without relocating. Overall, 15.3% of offices reported hiring lateral partners who did not need to relocate, 22.7% reported hiring lateral associates who did not need to relocate, and 23.4% reported hiring other lateral lawyers who did not need to relocate.
