If you plan to bolster your lawyer ranks with lateral associates in 2025, there are two critical steps for ensuring success. Law firms must understand the risks inherent in lateral associate hiring, then create a due diligence program that works for this demographic.
While the leverage that experienced associates can provide can help your firm respond to the quickly evolving market, you cannot overlook the importance of thorough due diligence for these candidates. Though often perceived as lower risk due to smaller salaries and a lack of portable books of business, associates can still engage in behavior that exposes the firm to significant financial, legal and reputational damage.
In fact, of lateral associate moves tracked by Decipher Investigative Intelligence, nearly two-thirds of candidates (59 percent) had at least one red flag surface during pre-hire due diligence, and nearly one in five candidates (20 percent) had a major red flag surface.
While risk data is not yet available for 2025, the statistics for 2024 provide a barometer for the risk inherent in today’s talent pool. Let’s take a look.
Red Flag Averages
Across all lateral associate candidates, the “average” carried 2.14 red flags. Those with one or more red flags carried 7.9.
The most common red flag areas for associates include:
- Resume/Career History Irregularity/Disclosure: 76 percent
- Traffic/Civil Filing Not Disclosed: 9 percent
- Financial Irregularity/Not Disclosed: 9 percent
- Traffic/Civil Filing Not Disclosed: 9 percent
- Social Media Content: 9 percent
The last bullet is worth another look: Nearly one in 10 lateral associate candidates’ use of social media brings cause for concern, such as insensitive or inflammatory posting.
Associate Red Flag Rates by Practice Area
While every candidate is different, some practice areas as a group tend to have riskier candidates than others.
Of associates with at least one red flag, three practice areas in 2024 saw higher per-candidate red flag averages:
- Litigation: 6 red flags per candidate
- Intellectual Property: 4.5
- Corporate: 3
Start with the LAQ
These statistics underscore the need for law firms to enforce a comprehensive, consistent, and rigorous screening process even for junior lateral associate candidates. At a minimum, firms should require candidates to complete (in full!) a detailed lateral associate questionnaire.
The LAQ is a vital step to uncover potential issues early in the recruitment and hiring process, helping to prevent future issues that could cause significant legal, financial, or reputational harm. Get details on what information to capture by downloading Decipher’s sample LAQ, available here.
Get the Full Picture
While the LAQ provides an essential first line of defense, only comprehensive due diligence can shed light on the full risk profile of your lateral associate candidates. (Remember: Nearly 1 in 10 has shady social media content waiting to be discovered – and it’s better that you find it before a client or a potential juror.)
While lateral partner candidates have decades of personal history and client relationships to review, the vast majority of associates do not – nor are they subject to partner votes or other procedural formalities. This simplifies the pre-hire due diligence in both data collection and reporting. At Decipher, for example, our streamlined associate reports collate information from more than 50 public, private and proprietary databases to uncover the most important objective candidate intelligence, which is summarized in an easily digestible report.
This balanced approach allows firms to make hiring decisions with confidence, knowing that potential issues have been properly – and proactively – addressed.
In a talent market where the average lateral associate carries more than two red flags, resolve in 2025 to eliminate unpleasant surprises from your hiring program.
