Lateral hiring bounced back in 2024, especially for associates in BigLaw, new NALP report says

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Lateral hiring bounced again in 2024, particularly for associates in BigLaw, new NALP report says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 26, 2025, 3:49 pm CDT

Lateral hiring of legislation agency associates elevated almost 25% in 2024, far outpacing a a lot smaller enhance of about 2% in lateral hiring of companions, in keeping with a report launched Wednesday by the Nationwide Affiliation for Regulation Placement.

Total, lateral hiring in companies elevated almost 14%, in keeping with a March 26 press launch and a report within the April NALP Bulletin.

The rise was highest in companies with greater than 1,000 attorneys, which had an general 21% enhance in lateral hiring and a 41% in lateral affiliate hiring.

The rise follows two down years “characterised by a retreat of BigLaw companies from {the marketplace}, which created a chance for savvy small companies to choose up some top-notch expertise,” mentioned Nikia Grey, govt director of the NALP, within the press launch. “In 2024, the lateral market started to stabilize, and with that, we noticed the BigLaw companies reentering the fray, largely driving the smaller companies out of the market.”

Lateral hiring elevated 110.9% in 2021, decreased 11.5% in 2022, decreased 35% in 2023 and elevated 13.9% in 2024.

The typical variety of lateral hires per workplace or agency was 16 in 2021, 15.9 in 2022, 9.3 in 2023 and 9.9 in 2024. The bottom common within the final 25 years was was 5.1 lateral hires per workplace or agency in 2009.

The report relies on a survey of 434 legislation workplaces that equipped hiring info on 4,295 lateral attorneys. A lot of the respondents have been from midsize and bigger companies. Solely 11% of the survey respondents got here from companies of 250 or fewer attorneys.

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