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I have been involved in the environmental legal/regulatory business, as an environmental consultant, environmental lawyer, and environmental regulator since 1969.

I “retired” in 2010, after a long environmental career, but quickly realized that I missed environmental law too much. I wanted to somehow stay involved in the practice and found that recruiting environmental partners filled the void. We have recruiting agreements in place with most Am Law 200 law firms and have earned the trust and respect of environmental practice group leaders, and recruiting managers, nationwide. We also maintain various recruiting databases including a lateral move database.

Two ways. I select the law firm clients and candidates that I work with very carefully. I work with partner level candidates exclusively and lead efforts of contract lawyers to work with associates and counsel level lawyers.

We save them a lot of time because we fully understand exactly what kind of partners they are looking for and eliminate and don’t present candidates that don’t match their needs. Of course, it also saves busy candidates a lot of time.

Absolutely. Money is money. That said however, it’s rare that opportunistic hiring can be relied on to produce a candidate with the specific skill sets, rate structure and client mix needed by clients precisely when the partner is needed.

Strange as it might sound, probably because we choose our clients very carefully. Looking back over the last 20 years, Common Counsel has been most successful in moving lateral environmental partners into firms that take time to work with nus to develop th well thought out environmental partner recruiting plans that describe not only the kinds of environmental partners that they are looking for, but also stat, specifically why a new partner candidate would benefit by making a lateral move, and precisely how the firm plans to make that happen.

Our law firm clients pay 100% of our fees. Partners that we work pay nothing. Truth be told, our clients are very happy to pay us for the opportunity to talk with partners with portable business.

A lot but believe me we deserve it. The fees that Common Counsel receives from law firm clients is confidential information and cannot be disclosed without prior approval of our clients. However, that said, it is well known and widely reported on the Internet, that most lawyer recruiting contracts or “fee agreements” pay outside recruiters a fee of about 25%, payable over varying periods of time but subject to a requirement that the recruiter refund a portion of the fee if a candidate leaves the firm voluntarily nor otherwise within a stated period of time. Also, most of our assignments are under a non-exclusive contingency contract which means that may work with a candidate for months or in some cases years and receive nothing unless the client hires the candidate.

Both. About 30% of our searches are “exclusive” for a period of 90 days, after which another recruiter can be brought in by the client if we have not been able to perform to the client’s satisfaction. Our clients have chosen to go with another recruiter/headhunter only twice in the past 20+ years.

Two reasons. First because it’s hard to obtain exclusive agreements. Second, it’s not always clear and in any case awkward to ask an “exclusive” contracted client if you can “sell” one of their rejected candidates to their biggest competitor across town.

Between 15% to20% in any given year.

Extremely helpful. It has allowed us to quickly identify target firms likely to need to replace a retiring partner; compare a candidate’s qualifications, experience and sub practice skill set with the client’s needs and determine candidate interest.

Absolutely. It’s extremely difficult to get that kind of information before submitting a Redacted Profile, but clients that are really interested in moving forward after reviewing a profile are almost always willing to share that information in order to entice the candidate to continue to move forward.

Three ways – First, our small size, and limited client base actually reduces the potential for client conflicts and lets us approach far more potential partner candidates practicing in firms that are not a clients of Common Counsel; Second, we let the partner candidates that we work with decide the firm(s) that they want to talk with, and; Third, our business model allows us to further minimize conflicts by allowing clients the option of choosing a non-exclusive contingency search, or an exclusive “retingency”(blended) search, limited to a specific legal market area or city.

Without any doubt getting the client to take the time needed to develop a clear partner integration plan explaining exactly how and why a candidate should expect to find greener pastures at their firm. When you try to convince an accomplished partner to consider your client, you obviously need to give them unvarnished facts showing them why. That said, we do not have any problems convincing our “better “clients to play by our “rules” and provide us with this information to share with our clients. And if not, quite frankly, they will no longer be our clients.

Short answer, you can’t. But since we stop receiving periodic commission periodic payments if you leave the firm (voluntarily or otherwise) our interests are clearly aligned, and we will do absolutely everything that we can to make sure you are happy.

Only about 15% of our clients have what we consider to be “good” integration plans, meaning those that tell a prospective candidate not just what he/she might expect upon joining the firm (i.e.., dramatically increase your book of business) but also an most important, exactly what would they do to make it happen.

Yes and no. About 25% of our clients have fully transparent compensation systems, and 75% do not. Those that do not, tend to rely on offering above-average compensation packages to attract new partners.

Yes. we subscribe to several law firm ranking/information services providers that track Am Law 200 firm metrics annually, including for example: “revenue per lawyer”, ‘profits per equity partner”, and “% firm profits”, to name a few. Environmental partners frequently ask us to provide them with a comparison of key metrics of for client firms that are interested in talking with them and their current firm.

Maybe. About 25% of our clients provide full credit for new originations from a current client of their firm that is 100% attributable to the new partners efforts and it is clear that the business would not have come in absent the efforts of the new partner. Other, maybe 50% of our clients allow for a splitting of credit between the lawyer that first brought the client into the firm and the new partner joining the firm, and about 25% of our clients would not give the new partner any credit.

Yes. By far, most have “income or profit partners” and “equity partners”, but others have 2 levels of income partners. Some only have equity partners.

Probably not. The vast majority of firms bring new partners in as income partners or contract partners, but include them as “partners”, so that nobody knows whether they are equity or income partners.

Maybe, especially for firms with transparent compensation systems, we are often to get an estimate without divulging your identity.

Probably not, but the amount of lost compensation really depends on the firm that the partner came from and is going to.

Absolutely, and Common Counsel strongly recommends that its clients perform a preliminary conflicts, after the client determines serious interest in a partner candidate, but before a long drawn out Lateral Partner Questionnaire (“LPQ”) is completed. Despite every attempt to streamline and expedite the process, on average, it takes between 3-6 weeks for a candidate to complete and finalize his/her LPQ and might be eliminated from consideration due to conflict at that time. The “preliminary conflicts check” is designed to eliminate conflicts early well before a candidate must his/her LPQ.

For solo partners on average from about 2 to 6 months, and for groups from about 5 to 22 months.

Most of our traditional law firm clients are looking to replace environmental partners that are retiring and bring in new partners with specialized knowledge needed to bolster specific sub-practice capabilities wanted by major clients. During the last 2-years we have seen a significant uptick in client need for partners practicing at the intersection of energy (renewable and traditional) and environmental law, and in particular those with strong NEPA and permitting experience, ideally as a member of the firm’s project management team.

Usually not. Most move into a new firm as “contract” or “income partners for a 1- or 2-year period before being considered for equity status. But there is no hard and fast, and there have been exceptions, especially with partners with very significant portable business.

We represent the top 5 “virtual” law firms in the U.S., or those employing a new “alternative business model” as they like to be called that dramatically reduce overhead costs; allow “Members” to work remotely; to retain about 70%-80% of their originations, (rather than 35% to 40% offered by most traditional brick and mortar firms); offer lower rates to key clients, and; accurately predict the 35% to 45% compensation owing to them from referral work at years-end.

Really depends on the firm and its clients and your particular practice and sub practice and skill-set expertise. Understandably, no firm wants to absolutely commit to a number, but all suggest that a significant portion of the average Members revenue comes from cross-selling and referrals, usually around .50% to 60%.

Virtually any partner with $300K to $500+K with very steady originations. They generally “target” partners concerned about losing clients because of higher and higher rates required by their firm; those that want to work remotely from home in order to help raise a family, or; those that are having trouble growing their originations and need to hold onto a higher percentage of originations.

Many important differences that must be understood and considered by a potential lawyer candidate when evaluating career opportunities. For example, whether or not the firm; allows equity participation; provides “meeting offices” in different practice cities, and; has Counsel level lawyers on-staff for use by Members, to name a few.

Yes – but only at one, which offers 5 different levels of equity partner participation keyed to the amount of your annual originations. The rest do not offer equity participation.

Because, if you have a $500K book, and pay them 30% (amount varies depending on gross originations) or $150K, you can probably live OK on $350, as compared to the $165K to $200K you might bring home at a traditional firm.