Internal promotions

Laterals

Intake as percentage of partnership 2005-06: 5

New female partners as percentage of intake 2005-06: 0

Firms recruited from: The Law Offices of Marcus J O’Leary

Equity structure: 47 equity partners, 31 non-equity partners

Practice area(s) most heavily promoted: TMT

Over three years Olswang has grown less by piecemeal lateral hiring and more by bolt-ons. The trend first started when it took over the Andersen Legal Reading office in 2002, continued when it took several partners from what was then DJ Freeman, and most recently the bolt-on of property boutique Julian Holy. Small wonder, then, that of 28 new partners in the last three years, 20 have been lateral and only eight internal. This has affected real estate particularly, which over that time has only managed one internal promotion compared with five laterals. Corporate is similar: it has promoted only two internally but has brought in nine laterals over the same period.
There is only one sector in the firm where laterals have not outnumbered internals, and that is the traditional stronghold of media - but even then, out of six appointments, internals account for half.