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Onward Insights - July 2026
Global M&A crossed $2.85 trillion and legal employment hit a record for the third straight month. But in a market moving this fast, a big hiring number and real growth are not the same thing. Here is what H1 2026 actually looked like, firm by firm and market by market.
Onward Insights - June 2026
What three years of building Onward taught us about searches that stall, hires that last, and why a small team can move better than a large one.
Onward Insights - May 2026
Being good at your job is the baseline, not the differentiator. The professionals who advance fastest are not always the most technically impressive in the room. They are the ones with consistent judgment, reliable follow-through, and the ability to make work feel lighter for everyone around them.
Onward Insights - April 2026
Reputation is not built only through results. It is formed through patterns that others observe over time, often without your awareness. In environments where decision makers rarely see the full scope of your work, perception fills the gaps. Waiting to be noticed allows that perception to form on incomplete information, while consistent, intentional visibility ensures your contributions are understood when it matters most.
Onward Insights - March 2026
In a world where staying connected has never been easier, meaningful professional relationships have never been harder to build. Passive engagement creates visibility, but not trust. While networking often emphasizes volume and quick interactions, real career momentum comes from relationships built over time through consistency, shared experience, and genuine understanding. Those connections provide context, credibility, and insight that surface-level networks cannot.
Onward Insights - February 2026
Burnout is often framed as a personal shortcoming, yet many high performers who feel depleted are meeting every expectation placed on them. The exhaustion persists not because of weakness, but because modern work structures demand constant availability, fragmented attention, and sustained intensity without meaningful recovery. Reframing burnout as structural, not personal, changes how professionals respond and how performance is sustained over time.
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.
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.
Onward Insights - November 2025
This month, we break down the surge in partner movement and merger activity shaping the legal market - and what every partner should evaluate before making a move. From early merger-integration trends to deal-flow timing and financial considerations, this edition offers a clear roadmap for navigating today’s shifting landscape.
Onward Insights - October 2025
The firms losing top candidates aren’t doing anything wrong - they’re just moving too slow. The real divide isn’t about effort; it’s about infrastructure. When traditional approval chains meet today’s lateral market speed, even well-meaning firms end up ghosting strong candidates.
We break down how one firm made a two-week close possible, what’s structurally blocking others from doing the same, and why treating recruiting as a strategic function - not a committee afterthought - is what separates firms that hire talent from those that just interview it.
Onward Insights - September 2025
Fall hiring isn't slow - it’s strategic. October is when timing, leverage, and market movement quietly align, offering lawyers a real opportunity to plan their next move without the bonus-season stampede.
Firms are actively hiring across litigation and transactional roles, and some are offering sign-on bonuses for pre-year-end starts. For associates and partners alike, early action unlocks better options and fewer headaches.
We break down what’s actually happening in the market, what candidates should be doing now, and why intentional timing - not wishful thinking - is what sets successful transitions apart in today’s competitive legal landscape.
Onward Insights - August 2025
For years, associates have mentored summer classes, attended firm events, and sat through CLEs - all while knowing this work "mattered" but never quite sure how much. Now, some firms are putting a number on it.
The move to formalize "investment hours" alongside traditional billables isn't revolutionary on paper. Associates were already doing most of this work. But formalizing it? That feels different.
It's the shift from implicit expectations to explicit targets. And for lawyers already navigating a complex numbers game, that change is creating more conversation than expected.
We explore why this development is resonating across the profession, what it reveals about evolving workplace expectations, and how both firms and associates are adapting to new ways of measuring value.