IP Soars, Litigation Slumps

Lateral hiring can be a bellwether for the legal industry. What's to come for DC? Abshire Legal Search head Jordan Abshire first looks backward to '12. The Harvard Law alum and former Troutman attorney says lateral associate opportunities in IP far outpaced those in litigation and corporate--106 IP postings to 59 in corporate and 56 in litigation. Litigation openings led in 2011, but fell dramatically in '12 to around half of their '11 total. Corporate openings seemed to concentrate in Q2 and Q3.

Jordan's an LSU Tiger alum (he's had this ceramic tiger, painted by his mother, since birth). Though his team didn't finish at the top this year, DC nearly led the way in associate opportunities, second to only NY. After a substantial uptick in lateral associate openings in '10, '11 saw another bump, which largely maintained pace last year. Now that firms have had the holiday season to assess workloads, and associates have started to pursue new opportunities after picking up their year-end bonuses (or making New Year's resolutions), we'll see busy lateral markets in Q1 and Q2.

Jordan grew up in Louisiana, so receiving Mardi Gras masks for Christmas is standard practice. Across geographic markets, he says, different firms in the same city often post openings for the same practice group within a few weeks--and sometimes days--of each other. One explanation: a particular catalyst pushing multiple firms to simultaneously recognize a need in a particular group. Another could be firms seeing their competitors dip their toes the lateral market and wanting a slice of whatever talent is stirred up by their competitors' openings. For instance, last year, 5 of 6 environmental openings came out in Q3; 10 of 15 tax postings in Q1.