Categories
- AI
- Business Development & Marketing
- Candidates
- Clients
- Diversity & Inclusion in Law
- In-House
- Innovation
- Job Search & Career Development
- Law Firms
- Legal Hiring Trends & Market Insights
- Legal Recruiting Insights
- Legal Tech
- Market Insights
- Marketing Intelligence
- Newsletter
- Resources and Tips
- Workplace Wellness
The Era of Lawyer Loyalty Is Over: Why the Free Agency Model Is the New BigLaw Standard
The implicit contract between law firms and their attorneys has broken down. With associate attrition at nineteen percent and Wachtell losing nine partners in under two years, the legal market has permanently reframed attorney mobility as professional strategy. Here is what the data says, and what it means for your next career decision.
A Raise Announcement Is Not the Whole Story: Decoding BigLaw Compensation
Milbank rewrote the associate salary scale in June 2026, and firms raced to match it. A headline announcement and money in your account are two different things. At least one firm announced it was joining the salary race and then quietly froze those raises until 2027. Here is how to read a compensation announcement before making any career decisions.
BigLaw Is Structurally Changing How It Hires: The Shift From Building to Buying Talent
For the first time in modern legal history, lateral associate hiring has outpaced entry-level hiring, with 3,296 laterals versus 3,039 law school hires in 2025. BigLaw has made its decision. Firms are filling their talent pipelines through the open market rather than building from the bottom up, and that structural shift carries major implications for attorneys who know how to read it.
What Does a Legal Recruiter Actually Do? A Plain-English Guide for Attorneys
Thinking about working with a legal recruiter but not sure what it actually involves? This plain-English guide explains how legal recruiters work, what they do for you, what they don't do, and how to tell a good one from a bad one.
The Legal Talent Gap Is Already Here. Firms Are Making It Worse.
Experienced hires now make up the majority of associate recruitment at AmLaw 200 firms for the first time. Law school hiring is down nearly seven points since 2021. Firms are solving a short-term cost problem and building a long-term talent crisis. Here is what the pipeline data actually says.
Hiring a Law Firm Marketing or BD Professional: What the Search Actually Involves
Law firm marketing and business development hiring is one of the most nuanced searches a firm can run. Here's what makes it different, what to look for in candidates, and how to think about the search process — from a recruiting firm that specializes in exactly this.
What Nobody Tells You About Making Equity Partner
Equity partnership is often treated as the natural next step for senior lawyers. The title promises higher compensation, greater influence, and a voice in firm leadership. What is less often discussed is the financial reality behind the transition. In today’s legal market, becoming an equity partner frequently requires a significant capital contribution, sometimes reaching 25 to 50 percent or more of annual compensation. That shift transforms the role from employee to investor, introducing financial risk and liquidity constraints that many lawyers do not fully understand until they are already on the path to partnership.
Onward Insights - January 2026
Most legal workdays aren’t undone by a single overwhelming task. They’re worn down by accumulation. Small interruptions, fragmented attention, and administrative work that quietly fills the spaces between everything else.
Over time, these hidden time drains shape performance, judgment, and sustainability far more than most lawyers realize.
Why Boutique Legal Search Firms Often Outperform Large Recruiting Companies
What's the difference between a boutique legal search firm and a large national recruiting company? For law firms and attorneys alike, the answer has real implications for how searches are run, how candidates are treated, and what outcomes actually look like.
The Real Cost of Making Equity Partner in Biglaw
Equity partnership is often seen as the culmination of years of demanding work, but the financial reality of ownership is frequently misunderstood until it arrives.
Today’s equity partner role comes with significant capital obligations that can materially affect liquidity, risk exposure, and long-term financial planning, making the decision far more complex than a title change alone.
When Your Team Struggles, Look Up, Not Down
Leadership development doesn’t happen overnight. It deepens through experience, reflection, and a growing awareness of how profoundly leaders shape the environment around them.
For many senior attorneys, leadership evolves from overseeing work to intentionally enabling others to do their best work - creating clarity, context, and conditions that allow excellence to compound over time.
Onward Insights - December 2025
In 2025, the legal market quietly recalibrated. Firms rethought how they hire, train, and promote, while lawyers navigated longer timelines, shifting expectations, and evolving definitions of value.
Conversations around AI, efficiency, and career progression moved from theory into practice, reshaping how work gets done and how success is measured. As the industry heads into 2026, these changes are no longer abstract, they’re actively influencing how legal careers take shape.