WHY CAN’T I FIND A LATERAL ASSOCIATE?

Southwest Florida is an excellent place to practice law. There are about 107,000 attorneys licensed to practice in Florida—but only about 72,000 actually practice within the state. Collier and Lee County have about 1,000 lawyers each with the populations of Collier at 386,000 and Lee at 788,000, respectively.

Theoretically, that means there is actually one practicing lawyer for every 838 people in Collier and Lee Counties combined. That is not a lot, and firms are busier than ever. Firms are screaming for lateral associates.

It makes sense that firms want an attorney with 2-5 years of experience because these mid-level associates are already somewhat trained, but are not yet too expensive to hire. However, there does not seem to be any lateral associates available to hire. Firms put out ads and get zero responses. Why can’t firms find lateral associates? There are several reasons at play.

Smaller Classes of New Graduates: Between 2010 and 2015, class sizes fell 38 percent nationally. Since 2015, the class sizes have been down 4 to 5 percent year over year. 2021 was an anomaly when the class sizes rose drastically during the pandemic. There are just fewer new attorneys to hire than there were a decade ago.

Salary Dysmorphia: Indeed.com says the average entry-level attorney salary in Florida is $90,000 to $102,000 per year, with gradual upticks with each year of experience. Of course, this is skewed to the larger salaries in Miami and

Tampa. However, it is not really less expensive to live in Collier or Lee Counties than in Miami or Tampa. Offering a wage that is not able to cover living in the county is not reasonable.

Comparatively, the entry-level salary at the Public Defender’s offices in the state is $60,000, with the new state budget potentially offering another $7,000 raise in 2023 to $67,000. In the private market, offering a lateral associate with billing requirements less than $80,000 is not reasonable. If you don’t pay them a wage allowing them to live in your county and being fair in the marketplace, associates will leave, and quickly.

Overall, Southwest Florida salaries need to catch up to the livable wage and the comparison wages for billable work. Young attorneys are leaving the traditional practice of law in droves due to low wages offered in large swaths of the legal market.

In-House Jobs: Gone are the days when 3 to 5 year associates made their way in-house. Many corporations are now hiring in-house with as little as one year of experience or less. Corporations have seen the wisdom of having more junior attorneys on staff. Millennials and members of Gen Z are interested in kicking the billable hour to the curb and going in-house.

Of my last two graduating classes at Ave Maria School of Law, I had several graduates go directly in-house, bypassing the firms entirely. Firms are losing young associates to in-house jobs that require service to only one client and flexible hours.

What can we do to make hires? Firms need to think strategically about associate hiring, instead of knee-jerk hiring reactions to busy practices.

Many firms seek to hire a 2-5 year lateral associate instead of an entry-level attorney. However, a lateral hire can be a stress on the firm as the lateral associate has to be re-taught how to do things “your way.” Also, lateral attorneys are at a premium right now and everyone is trying to hire them. They are in demand and there are not many of them. If you hire a student and then keep them as an entry-level attorney, the rewards may outweigh the investment.

When I counsel a small firm looking to make a lateral hire, I always suggest that they instead hire a 2L or 3L and train them up. This allows for an audition timeframe to ensure the right cultural fit. Hiring a student can be a “safer” option than hiring a lateral associate. Plus, hiring a student frees up your associates for more billable work. It is all new and exciting for a student, so they can be given some of the routine work and still bring a new sense of excitement to the practice.

Offering the right salary, training the person well and integrating them into the firm may keep them at your firm for the long haul. Also, hiring a student and training them up may be the best thing for your firm in the long run.