Poston Communications and LawVision Launch Lateral Lift Survey to Measure How Law Firms Manage Lateral Attorney Integration

2026 survey distributed through JD Supra gathers matched data from law firm executives, in-house counsel and recent lateral hires on lateral hiring and integration practices

Poston Communications, a public relations agency serving professional services firms, and LawVision, a legal industry consulting firm, today announced the launch of the Lateral Lift Lateral Attorney Survey in partnership with JD Supra. The national survey collects data from law firm executives, in-house counsel and recent lateral hires about how firms manage lateral attorney moves, from recruitment through the critical first 180 days of integration. Survey results and report will be released in the fall.

Am Law 200 firms hired more than 12,000 attorneys in 2024, including approximately 2,728 partner-to-partner moves, according to Decipher. Despite this volume of lateral activity, the legal industry lacks reliable national data about which integration practices produce results and which fall short.

The survey follows three tracks. First, law firm executives – including managing partners, chief marketing officers, chief business development officers, chief talent officers, chief operating officers and chief human resources officers – answer questions about the role lateral hiring plays in revenue growth, how marketing and business development professionals participate in the recruiting process, and how firms measure integration outcomes. Second, in-house counsel answers a separate set of questions about their direct experiences when relationship partners leave firms, including how the moves affect client work and communication. And finally, recent lateral hires are asked about the hiring firms’ processes and the support they received after arriving.

“Firms invest heavily in lateral recruiting, but almost no one has measured how clients feel about all of the changes, and few firms quantify what happens after the offer letter is signed,” said Dave Poston, CEO and general counsel of Poston Communications. “This survey will give the industry its first matched view of the lateral experience from both the firm and client perspectives.”

“Lateral hiring has become a primary growth engine for law firms of nearly every size, yet integration remains inconsistent,” said Silvia Coulter, principal and chair of the Business Development Practice at LawVision. “The data from this survey will show firms precisely where their integration processes fall short and what distinguishes firms that retain their lateral hires from those that do not.”

The survey results and report, to be released this fall, is a companion project to the white paper “Beyond the Offer Letter: How Laterals Can Turn a Move Into Momentum,” authored by Poston Managing Director Beth Huffman and Coulter.  Scheduled for release in late July, the white paper examines the most effective lateral integration strategies and how they can be applied during the first 180 days after a hire.

JD Supra, a legal content platform distributed to an audience of more than 1 million readers, is distributing the survey to its network of law firm professionals and in-house counsel. Adrian Lurssen, co-founder of JD Supra, and his team will also amplify the results after publication and participate as co-presenters when the findings are shared with the legal marketing and management community.

“JD Supra reaches both the law firm executives and the in-house counsel this research needs to hear from,” Lurssen said. “Distributing a survey like this requires an audience that already trusts the content it receives, and that is what our platform provides.”

Survey results will be published in a comprehensive industry research report presenting national benchmarks by firm size, role and geography. Poston Communications, LawVision and JD Supra will host a joint webinar to present the findings after the report is released.

The survey is open to law firm executives, in-house counsel and recent lateral hires. Responses are confidential and will be reported in aggregate, with no individual or firm identified in the published research. The survey takes approximately eight minutes to complete and remains open for several months.

For the survey link and to sign up to see the report, please view this webpage.

About Poston Communications

Poston Communications is a public relations agency serving professional services firms in law, accounting, architecture, engineering, construction, financial services, healthcare and related industries. The firm provides public relations, content creation, crisis and litigation communications, media training and digital video production services. Poston Communications has been ranked among the top 20 PR and crisis firms in the United States by Chambers and Partners.

About LawVision

LawVision is a legal industry consulting firm advising law firm leaders on the business of law including strategic planning, compensation and partnership structures, and client acquisition, client retention and revenue growth. Silvia Coulter serves as principal and chair of the firm’s Business Development Practice.

About JD Supra

JD Supra delivers need-to-know legal and business content to professionals in all industries in daily email digests, via more than 100 proprietary social feeds, on mobile platforms, to partner websites and as news across the web. Through the innovative use of technology and curated audiences, JD Supra connects over 50,000 professionals writing on important topics to C-suite executives, in-house counsel and media members concerned with matters impacting business today. JD Supra also provides firms with competitive insights and market intelligence derived from the thousands of articles being read daily across the platform. For more information, visit jdsupra.com.

For more information, please reach out to Beth Huffman, managing director of Poston Communications, at huffman@postoncommunications.com.