2023 Lateral Partner Satisfaction Survey

The 2023 Lateral Partner Satisfaction Survey is the fifth edition of our survey, which offers a wealth of interesting insights as to partners’ motivations for moving and their satisfaction with their career choices.

Some of the key findings include:

• Lateral partners’ overall satisfaction remains quite high: 86% reported that they are very (55.4%) or somewhat (30.4%) satisfied with their current firm.
• 83% of lateral partners reported that they would still move to their current firm if they had to do it all over again. 14% would have moved but to a different firm, and 3% wished they had stayed at their former firm.
• Lack of confidence in the firm management/strategy was the number one reason for partners to consider leaving their firm (as it was in 2020). 
• Lateral partners are becoming more diverse. 30% of the participants in this year’s survey were female. Ethnic backgrounds were recorded in this survey, with 14.2% of the lateral partners identifying as Black, Hispanic, Asian Pacific, or mixed race, up from 12% in 2020. Asian Pacific lateral partners increased to 6% in 2023 from 4% in 2020, and those identifying as Black increased to 3% from 2.4% in 2020.  
• Culture of old firm and new firm are a major driver of a move. Firm culture was found to be a significant factor pushing lateral partners to leave their previous firm and attracting them to their new one.