Law firms continue to make significant investments in lateral talent. Lateral hiring at U.S. firms increased sharply in 2025, and the movement has continued through 2026 as firms recruit individual partners, practice groups, and entire teams. At the same time, combinations are creating much larger platforms. Hogan Lovells Cadwalader now has more than 3,200 lawyers, Ashurst Perkins Coie approximately 3,000, and Winston Taylor more than 1,400.
These moves are designed to create growth. Firms are adding expertise, entering markets, strengthening client relationships, expanding capabilities, and positioning themselves to compete for work that may not have been available to them before.
The question is what happens after the lawyers arrive.
Much of the discussion around lateral hiring focuses on portable business, particularly at the partner level. Revenue is an important measure of value, but many highly valuable lateral hires do not arrive with a significant group of clients following them.
Senior associates, counsel, and partners may be recruited because they possess specialized expertise, have strong relationships within institutional clients, fill an important succession need, understand a market the firm wants to develop, or have the potential to build a significant practice.
For these lawyers, much of the firm's investment is in what they can become on the new platform.
A senior associate may develop into a partner who originates substantial work. A counsel hire may build a distinctive practice around an emerging client need. A partner without a large portable book may become critical to several major client relationships, generate opportunities across practices, or develop significant business once given access to a broader platform.
Those outcomes require more than a successful onboarding process.
A larger platform creates possibilities that still need to be activated
One of the most compelling reasons to make a lateral move is that the new firm makes something possible that was harder to accomplish before. The lawyer may suddenly have access to more sophisticated clients, complementary practices, stronger institutional relationships, international capabilities, or hundreds of new colleagues.
A combination can multiply those possibilities overnight. A lawyer who previously knew most of the relevant people in their firm may suddenly have hundreds or thousands of new colleagues whose clients, expertise, and relationships could be highly relevant to the practice they want to build.
Scale creates value only when lawyers understand how to use it.
The lawyer needs to identify which relationships matter, where their expertise complements the work of others, which clients could benefit from what they do, and how the expanded platform creates opportunities that did not previously exist.
This is particularly important in large firms, where the people who influence partnership, client opportunities, and leadership roles may sit in different practices, offices, or countries. A lawyer can be doing exceptional work while important decision-makers still have only a general understanding of their expertise and the commercial opportunity surrounding it.
The lawyer needs to become known by the right people for the right things.
Being busy and building a practice are different objectives
Talented laterals often become busy quickly. Partners trust them, clients value their work, and more matters come their way. That is a positive sign, but it does not necessarily mean the lawyer is intentionally developing the practice or career they want.
At some point, the questions need to become more specific.
What work does this lawyer want to become known for? Which clients and industries should know them? Who inside the firm needs to understand their expertise? Which relationships could lead to opportunities over time? Where can their experience create value for other practices? What should their market position look like two or three years from now?
For laterals pursuing partnership, these questions become especially important. A strong partnership case needs to give firm leaders confidence in the lawyer's future contribution. That can include client relationships, cross-practice collaboration, market credibility, leadership, internal support, and a realistic path toward generating business.
Those capabilities need to develop long before substantial origination is expected.
Business development starts before a lawyer brings in a client
Commercial progress can be visible well before a lawyer has a significant book of business.
Clients begin calling the lawyer directly. Partners increasingly bring them into pitches or important client conversations. The lawyer develops relationships with executives, investors, bankers, consultants, or other professionals who influence legal hiring decisions. Their speaking and writing make them increasingly associated with an area of expertise that matters to clients. They begin identifying opportunities for colleagues in other practices.
These are meaningful indicators of future commercial value.
They are also areas where intentional development matters. Lawyers need opportunities to learn how to build relationships, communicate their expertise, recognize client needs, develop internal networks, create visibility, and follow through consistently.
Integration should eventually become growth
Most large firms have invested significantly in lateral onboarding and integration. At some point, the conversation should shift from, "How is this lawyer integrating?" to, "What are we building around this lawyer?"
The answer will be different for every lateral.
One lawyer may need stronger relationships with partners who manage institutional clients. Another may need a clearer market position. A partnership candidate may need to connect internal relationships, client development, and visibility into a coherent case for advancement. An established partner may need to determine how a broader platform can create new opportunities within existing relationships.
Individual coaching creates structure around this next stage. It gives lawyers the opportunity to step outside the demands of active matters, define what they want to build, identify the relationships and opportunities that matter most, and translate broad expectations around business development into specific actions and measures of progress.
Law firms are investing heavily to recruit exceptional people and create stronger platforms. The return on that investment should be measured by more than what lateral lawyers bring with them immediately.
The larger opportunity is what they are able to build once they arrive.
Practice Growth Partner works with law firms to extend lateral integration into long-term practice and career growth. Through individualized coaching, we work with lateral partners, counsel, and senior associates to identify what they want to build on the firm's platform, develop the internal and external relationships that support that growth, strengthen their market visibility, and build the commercial capabilities required for partnership and continued advancement.
If your firm is looking for ways to increase the long-term value of its investment in lateral talent, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss what a focused coaching program could look like.
For lawyers who want to build this kind of leverage deliberately, LEAP Attorney Growth Lab provides the structure most firms do not. It gives attorneys a consistent place to clarify what they want to be known for, pressure test their thinking with peers, and build habits around visibility and relationships that compound over time. The value is not just tactical. It is the ability to step out of reactive mode and work on your career with intention, whether you stay put or eventually make a move. Lawyers who invest in this kind of community and structure are expanding their options, strengthening their position where they are, and making future decisions from a position of control rather than urgency.