Mark Jungers Featured in Law360 on the Challenges of Guaranteed Deals for Lateral Hires
In the Law360 article, “Firms Take Harder Line On Guaranteed Deals For Laterals,” Co-founder Mark Jungers addresses the challenges law firms face when offering guaranteed pay packages to lateral hires. “The highly desired lateral is a valuable commodity that law firms want to make sure they are able to attract, and one of the important ways to do that is to offer guaranteed money,” said Mr. Jungers.
Taking the lessons learned from the 2012 demise of firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP after falling short on their promise of lavish pay packages to lateral hires, firms have focused on due diligence on prospective laterals and their business. “I think diligence is better, and I think in particular law firms are pushing some of the envelope on the subject of client reference calls to try and figure out what’s going to come and what’s not going to come,” Mr. Jungers added.
However, not all firms need to err on the side of caution when hiring a strong candidate. Mr. Jungers claimed, “As some of these firms have gotten larger, it gives them freedom to place more bets. If you make some mistakes, it’s not as big a deal.”