Questions to Ask in an Interview Law Firm
For lawyers interviewing while already in practice, whether you are moving from another firm, coming out of a clerkship, or leaving an in-house or government role. It covers what someone with a track record has to check and a graduate does not: why the seat is open, what seniority you would be credited with, whether your clients clear conflicts, how billing credit is shared, and what became of the last laterals through the door.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Why is this seat open, and what happened to the person who had it?
Why ask it
Growth, a departure, and a partner who could not keep an associate are three different jobs. The answer also sets up everything else you ask, because a replacement hire inherits the reasons the last person left.
What seniority would I be credited with, and how does that map to my year of qualification?
Why ask it
Firms sometimes discount a lateral by a year, which moves your review, your pay band, and your partnership timetable all at once. Get the year in writing rather than agreeing to be slotted in later.
How many laterals joined this group in the last two years, and how many are still here?
Why ask it
Laterals fail at a higher rate than internal promotions, usually for reasons of integration rather than ability. A group that has absorbed several and kept them has a working process; one that has not may not know it needs one.
What billable target would I be held to in my first year while I am still building up?
Why ask it
Coming in cold means slower matters and an empty diary for a while. Ask whether the first year is adjusted, and if not, who is responsible for keeping you busy until your own work arrives.
How is origination and billing credit allocated, and can it be shared?
Why ask it
Credit rules decide your compensation and your case for promotion. Ask whether credit follows the relationship, the biller, or the partner who signed the client, and whether it can be split when you bring work in through someone else.
Which of my current clients would create a conflict, and who runs that check before an offer?
Why ask it
Conflicts can remove the exact practice you were hired for. Ask when the check happens, how detailed it is, and whether the offer is contingent on it clearing.
What happens to my existing matters if a conflict clears late, or not at all?
Why ask it
You need to know whether the firm expects you to hand work back, run it out, or drop it on day one. This determines what you can honestly promise the clients you would be leaving behind.
Who would supervise me, and who would I be expected to supervise?
Why ask it
A lateral often arrives with nobody clearly responsible for them and nobody clearly reporting to them. Both ends need a name, because the gap is where laterals quietly become expensive juniors.
How would I be introduced to the group's clients, and how quickly?
Why ask it
Integration is mostly access. Ask which relationships you would be put in front of in the first quarter and who makes that introduction, since without it you are billing someone else's work indefinitely.
How is the partnership timetable applied to someone joining from outside?
Why ask it
Internal candidates accumulate years and sponsors that a lateral does not. Ask what the last person who joined at your level was told, and how long it actually took them.
Are there salaried or non-equity partner tiers, and how long do people stay in them?
Why ask it
An intermediate tier can be a genuine step or a permanent holding pattern. Ask how many people are in it now and how long the longest-serving has been there.
Where does the group's work come from, and how concentrated is it among a few clients?
Why ask it
Client concentration is a risk to your seat, not only to the firm. One client at a large share of the group's billings means your workload rests on a single relationship.
What would I be expected to bring with me, and what happens if it does not follow?
Why ask it
If any part of the offer assumes portable work, that assumption should be stated out loud now rather than raised at your first review. Ask what the expectation is in hours or revenue and over what period.
How is compensation set for laterals, and is any part of the first year guaranteed?
Why ask it
Lateral pay is negotiated rather than published, and a guarantee for the first twelve months is common where a book takes time to move. Ask what happens at the end of the guarantee as well.
How much of my current practice could I keep running, and what would have to be dropped?
Why ask it
Firms often want the profile of your practice without the smaller matters that come with it. Better to find out now which parts they consider off-strategy than to discover it when staffing requests are refused.
How did this group get through the last downturn in its market?
Why ask it
Behaviour under pressure, whether that meant retention, redeployment, or redundancies, predicts far more than a statement of values on a website.
What has gone wrong for laterals here, and what did the firm change afterwards?
Why ask it
Ask this of a partner and then of an associate. Common answers are no work in the first months, unclear credit, and no sponsor. A firm that has fixed one of those can tell you exactly how.
What systems and support would I have on day one: assistant, paralegal, business development help?
Why ask it
A lateral is judged on output from the first month, and the infrastructure decides how much output is possible. This is also the question that reveals whether anyone has actually planned your arrival.
How long does this process run from here, and who signs off on an offer?
Why ask it
Lateral processes stall at committees and conflicts checks rather than at interviews. Knowing the sequence lets you manage your notice period and your current matters rather than guessing.
What would you want me to have done by the end of the first ninety days?
Why ask it
The answer is the job description you will actually be measured against. If nobody can name three things, the role has been created in the abstract and you would be defining it yourself.
Interviewing at a law firm
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Ask about the group, not the firm
- Firm-level answers are already on the website. The variation that will affect your life is between practice groups inside the same firm, and often between partners inside the same group.
- Try to speak to a junior associate without a partner in the room. Ask the recruiting contact directly, and note that a refusal is itself information.
- Two associates in one group can describe different jobs depending on who staffs them, so ask each person you meet who they work for most often.
Numbers to ask for plainly
- The billable target, and precisely what counts toward it.
- Hours actually recorded in the group last year, which often sits above the target.
- How many associates are in the group, and how many joined and left in the past two years.
- Pro bono hours credited, and any cap on them.
- How bonuses are determined, and whether anyone missed one last year.
How to raise hours without a rehearsed answer
- Avoid the phrase work-life balance. It reliably produces a prepared response about flexibility.
- Ask instead what the last genuinely bad week in the group looked like and what caused it.
- Ask what happens to your matters while you are on annual leave. If the answer is that you stay reachable, you have learned the culture.
- Ask when people usually leave on an ordinary day with nothing closing.
Common mistakes
- Asking about partnership prospects before showing any curiosity about the work itself.
- Assuming prestige means you should not evaluate them. Firms notice candidates who ask real questions, and lose good ones who assume they cannot.
- Leaving without establishing who your supervising partner would be, which is the single variable with the largest effect on your first two years.