Associate compensation in Big Law this year, including special bonuses topping off at $64,000, has made the talent pool for in-house attorneys more shallow than before. In particular, recruiters are reporting more challenges in finding top talent for in-house jobs.
Still, recruiter and in-house counsel sources say they’re not deterred, because there is still plenty of talent available among lawyers already in law departments, and those lawyers usually want to stick around for other reasons.
Sonya Olds Som, a corporate counsel recruiter at Heidrick & Struggles, said the talent pool of six to 12-year associates that could normally be persuaded into finding a career in-house are staying at law firms.
“The problem is recruiting law firm people into in-house roles because the money is so good right now,” Som said.
While some attorneys go in-house straight from law school, typically legal departments wait until they have been trained by a law firm for a few years at least. Som said she begins recruiting firm associates anywhere from six to 12 years because they have the training necessary to work in-house, but “are not entrenched in the law firm mentality.”
The bonuses, she said, are keeping associates in that range from switching to the client-side, she said.
Som’s experiences are in line with John Gilmore, of executive search firm BarkerGilmore. He told Law.com this month that recruiters and law firms are “slugging it out” over a limited supply of mid-level legal talent, especially diverse lawyers who are in high demand.
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