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Aug 12, 2026

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Estate Planning Firm Needs Help – Should we Hire an Experienced Lateral Associate

Question:

I am the managing partner of a three lawyer estate planning practice in Bloomington, Illinois. I am the sole owner with no partners. The other two lawyers are associates that have been with the firm for several years. (One three years and the other seven years.) In addition to the attorneys we have a receptionist, a bookkeeper/office manager, and three paralegals.

We have recently gone through some lawyer and paralegal turnover and we are way behind in servicing client work and are experiencing client complaints. We are in the process of trying to staff up and hire another lawyer for the firm. We do not have the time to train up a new lawyer right out of law school and we need a seasoned associate with three to five years estate planning and administration experience – especially probate and trust administration. We have only received a couple of candidates and we are finding:

• They have no book of business or referral sources that they can bring with them.
• They are demanding salaries of $150,000 – $200,000.
• They are asking to work remotely for much of the work week.
• We had one candidate ask for a sabbatical after seven years.

We are at wits end and would like your thoughts on whether hiring an experienced lateral associate lawyer even makes sense for our firm or should we hire a new graduate and try to grow our own. In the past we have hired associates with a few years experience? Any suggestions that you might have will be appreciated.

Response: 

Small firms such as yours often have not invested the time in developing procedural manuals and other training tools that makes onboarding new lawyers and staff easier nor does anyone have the time to train newly hired lawyers and staff. While you don’t have the time or resources to develop such tools now this is something you should consider in the future. Such tools enable law firms to onboard both new and inexperienced lawyers as well as experienced lawyers much quicker that the trial and error method that occurs without such tools.

Keep in mind there is still a learning curve and spin time even for experienced laterals who have to learn jurisdictional ways of doing things, your internal office systems and procedures, etc. There is also a work in progress billing lag that occurs. A small estate planning/administration firms such as yours should generally avoid hiring lateral associates unless the firm has steady excess work and clear profit margins and a need for a senior associate. Laterals often demand high salaries, benefits, remote work options, bring along bad practices and cultural experiences, and may not bring in sufficient fees to cover their overhead. It usually takes at least a year before you begin to make a profit from a new lateral – sometimes longer.

Adding an expensive lateral lawyers to your existing team will be a major financial risk for the firm. In addition to the new lawyers salary and other expenses a new lawyer will likely need additional paralegal support and a paralegal may need to be hired as well.  As a result the firm could experience:

• Cash flow problems
• Strain on firm profits
• Firm may operate at a net loss for a year or more
  
• Problems working the new lateral hire into your existing associate compensation structure.

Better options for your firm:

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Posted at 08:03 AM in Human Resources, Laterals

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