Keeping Your Momentum When Lateral Moves Take Months
If this is your first job change since law school recruitment, prepare yourself: the experience is nothing like OCI (and even that is now nothing like it was!). There's no structured timeline. No coordinated callback weeks. No clear beginning, middle, and end.
Instead, you're navigating a process that can easily stretch 6-9 months, or more, from start to finish. Not because any single firm takes that long, but because your preferred firms rarely have openings simultaneously. One firm posts in March. Another in June. Your dream firm doesn't open a position until August. Meanwhile, you're managing multiple processes at different stages, trying to maintain enthusiasm for opportunities you explored months ago while new possibilities emerge.
Even individual firm processes drag on far longer than you'd expect. Applications accumulate over weeks or months. Busy hiring partners and practice leaders may only review resumes in batches when they can carve out time. You might wait three weeks just to hear whether you're getting an initial screening. Then there's the screening, followed by a few weeks before callback interviews get scheduled. After callbacks, firms often go completely dark for 2-3 weeks, sometimes longer.
This silence is where momentum dies and deals fall apart. You're left wondering if they're still interested, if they've chosen someone else, or if you should follow up. If you're talking to multiple firms (and hopefully you are), you might start losing interest in the opportunities you explored first. The firm that seemed perfect in April feels distant by July when you still haven't heard anything definitive.
About 72% of job seekers across all sectors report that extended hiring processes negatively impact their mental health. For attorneys juggling confidential searches alongside demanding billable hour requirements, the strain is even more acute.
Here's the hard truth: lawyers are cautious by nature. Even when partners meet the perfect candidate early in the process - someone who checks every single box - they'll typically want to see additional candidates anyway. Many firms also have rigid, cumbersome approval processes for attorney hiring. Multiple stakeholders. Partner discussions. Competing priorities. All of this adds weeks to an already lengthy timeline.
This doesn't reflect your qualifications or marketability. It means you need strategies to sustain motivation and mental health through an inherently exhausting journey.
Understanding the Modern Legal Hiring Landscape
Before assuming delays signal problems with your candidacy, understand the structural realities driving these timelines.
The process is fundamentally non-linear. Unlike law school recruitment with its coordinated structure, lateral hiring unfolds chaotically. Firms open positions based on client needs, departures, or practice expansion - events that are usually reactive and don't align across the market. Your target firms likely won't all have openings at once. This means:
You might identify 8-10 target firms but only 2-3 have current openings.
By the time you finish interviewing at Firm A, Firm B finally posts the role you've been waiting for.
You're constantly in different stages with different firms, making it difficult to compare opportunities or make decisions.
A search that could theoretically take 8-12 weeks at one firm actually stretches to 6-9 months because you're waiting for the right opportunities to materialize.
Application review happens on firm timelines, not yours. Once you apply, your resume joins a stack. Some firms review on a rolling basis; others wait until they've collected sufficient applications to review in batches. This initial review might happen next week or three weeks from now, depending entirely on internal recruiting team capacity, hiring partner schedules, and practice leader availability.
Long lag times between steps are standard. Even after successful screening interviews, expect at least a week or two before callbacks get scheduled. Coordinating multiple interviewer calendars for your callback can take considerable time. Then after callbacks - when you've invested hours preparing, likely traveled to the office, met six partners/counsel/associates, and felt genuinely positive about the experience - you might hear nothing for 2-3 weeks or longer.
Lawyers want to see multiple candidates, even when they find a great one early. This is perhaps the most frustrating dynamic. You might be exactly what they're seeking, but they'll continue interviewing other candidates anyway. It's due diligence. Risk aversion. The desire to confirm there's no one even better out there. This extends the process for everyone involved and tests candidate patience significantly.
Approval processes are rigid and cumbersome. A hiring partner's enthusiasm doesn't equal an offer. Many firms require multiple approval layers: practice group leadership, hiring committees, and managing partner sign-off. Each layer adds time. Each requires coordination. All of this happens invisibly while you're waiting and wondering.
Deals fall apart during the silence. Those 2-3 week dark periods after callbacks? This is when candidates lose faith. When excitement wanes. When the firm that seemed perfect starts feeling like they've moved on. If you're in process with other firms showing more enthusiasm or moving faster, you might mentally check out from the firms moving slowly, even if they remain genuinely interested.
Understanding these realities helps you contextualize the experience. When you expect the process to be lengthy, non-linear, and periodically silent, you're less likely to internalize delays as rejection.
Managing the Non-Linear Timeline
The non-linear nature of legal hiring creates unique psychological challenges. Unlike law school recruitment where you interviewed with multiple firms during a condensed window and received offers around the same time, lateral searches unfold unpredictably.
Strategic approaches to managing this reality:
Track opportunities systematically. Maintain a simple spreadsheet or document tracking each firm: when you applied, when you had initial conversations, callback dates, follow-up timing, and current status. This external system prevents you from obsessively replaying where each opportunity stands. When firms go dark for 2-3 weeks, you can check your tracker and see that this is actually normal timing rather than a sign they've moved on.
Expect and plan for the dark periods. After callbacks, you know 2-3 weeks of silence is standard. Rather than spiraling during this window, tell yourself: "I won't hear anything until at least [specific date]." Give yourself permission to fully disengage from this particular opportunity until that date. Focus on other firms, other work, or simply living your life.
Maintain multiple active conversations. The non-linear timeline actually works in your favor here. Because firms move at different paces and have openings at different times, you should always have multiple conversations happening. When Firm A goes dark after callbacks, you might be having initial conversations with Firm B and researching Firm C that just posted an opening. This portfolio approach prevents you from becoming emotionally over-invested in any single opportunity.
Recognize when to let opportunities go. If a firm has gone completely silent for 4-6 weeks after callbacks despite your follow-up, it's okay to mentally move on. They may eventually resurface with an offer, but you can't put your life on hold indefinitely. Shift your emotional energy to opportunities showing more momentum.
Handling Rejection and Building Resilience
Rejection in lateral recruiting stings, particularly after you've invested significant time showcasing your expertise and mentally envisioning yourself at a new firm. Even when you intellectually understand it's not personal, it feels deeply personal.
But rejection frequently has nothing to do with your qualifications. Sometimes:
Firms freeze hiring mid-process due to shifts in demand.
Practice group needs shift suddenly when a lateral partner joins or leaves.
Internal politics you're not privy to affect the decision.
You're one of two equally qualified finalists and they choose the other attorney - perhaps because of subtle practice differences or simply timing.
The approval process stalls at a committee level you never even met.
You can execute flawlessly throughout the process and still not be selected.
Strategies for resilience:
Request feedback when possible. Many firms won't provide detailed explanations, citing generic reasons or simply going silent. But some will. You might hear that another candidate had more experience in a specific regulatory niche or that your practice emphasis didn't align precisely with immediate needs. This stings, but it's actionable intelligence. Document what you learn and look for patterns across multiple rejections.
Maintain perspective during setbacks. Rejection erodes confidence gradually. After the third or fourth firm passes, you start questioning everything - your qualifications, your interviewing skills, whether you should even be attempting a lateral move. Don't pretend it doesn't hurt - disappointment is normal and valid. Allow yourself to feel it. Discuss it with trusted confidants. Practice self-compassion. But also watch for negative self-talk and challenge it actively.
Look for small victories in each process: perhaps you progressed further than in previous searches, articulated your value proposition more confidently, or got positive feedback even though they ultimately passed. These incremental improvements matter.
Understand the 2-3 week silence phenomenon. This is worth addressing specifically because it causes so much anxiety. When firms go dark after callbacks, candidates often assume the worst. "They've clearly decided against me and just haven't told me yet." Sometimes that's true. But often they're genuinely still in the deliberation and approval process. That silence doesn't necessarily mean anything negative. Having realistic expectations about these dark periods helps you avoid spiraling unnecessarily.
Know when deals are falling apart - and when they're not. If you've had callbacks and then hear nothing for 3+ weeks despite follow-up, the deal may be losing momentum. This happens frequently in legal hiring. But sometimes firms resurface weeks later with offers, they were simply stuck in approval processes. It's frustratingly ambiguous. The key is maintaining multiple active opportunities so you're not emotionally over-invested in any single firm going silent.
Recovery requires grace and patience. Taking time to regroup after a rejection isn't weakness, it's wisdom. You might need to refine how you present your experience, reconsider which firms truly align with your goals, or work with a coach on interview skills. When you're ready, resume gradually. One small action is sufficient momentum.
Moving Forward, One Step at a Time
Extended, non-linear lateral hiring processes are simply how legal recruiting works. This doesn't reflect poorly on you, your practice, or your marketability. It reflects the structural realities of law firm hiring: cautious decision-making, cumbersome approval processes, unpredictable schedule coordination, and the simple fact that firms rarely have openings simultaneously.
But understanding these realities doesn't mean you should let the process compromise your health or current performance. You can establish boundaries, protect your mental wellbeing, strategically develop your network, and strengthen your practice throughout the search.
This process is demanding, even for experienced attorneys who intellectually understand how law firm hiring works. The gap between knowing it takes time and actually maintaining motivation through months of uncertainty is substantial.
But you're not stuck. Every action - researching firms thoughtfully, building authentic connections, refining how you present your practice, developing your expertise - moves you forward. Even during those frustrating silent periods, you're learning about the market, about what you truly want, and about which firms are organized and responsive enough to deserve your talents.
The right opportunity, one that truly aligns with your practice, values, and long-term goals, is worth the patience and persistence. Just remember: the length of the process says nothing about your value. It says everything about how law firms make hiring decisions.
Keep taking those steps forward. The search may be long, but your next chapter is out there.
