Attorneys: Get Recruited by Partner Dan Lewis at BCG Attorney Search

Summary

Dan Lewis is a Partner Recruiter at BCG Attorney Search, a premier legal recruitment firm located in Century City, California. His role involves identifying, interviewing, and evaluating legal professionals for placement at top law firms across the country. He is an expert in the attorney placement field and is passionate about helping his clients find the best opportunity to meet their individual goals.


Dan Lewis has extensive experience working with law firms of all sizes, from mid-sized to international firms. He has developed a deep understanding of the legal industry and the nuances of attorney recruitment. Dan is dedicated to providing unparalleled service to his clients, helping them identify the best opportunities to pursue their career goals. He takes great pride in helping lawyers find the right fit, so they can in turn provide great value to their respective firms.

Dan understands the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest trends in the legal industry and staying ahead of the competition. As a result, he is constantly developing new strategies to attract top talent and identify the perfect match for his client firms. He is well-versed in utilizing the latest technology, including video interviews and virtual offices, to effectively facilitate the hiring process.

At BCG Attorney Search, Dan Lewis works with a select group of attorneys to help them pursue their professional goals. He is highly knowledgeable about the legal landscape and he has been able to create a successful career for himself by utilizing his skills and expertise to best serve his clients. Dan Lewis has a long-term approach when it comes to attorney recruitment, which has enabled him to build meaningful relationships and help his clients find success.

To summarize, Dan Lewis is a Partner Recruiter at BCG Attorney Search, a premier legal recruitment firm. He has extensive experience in the legal industry and is a sought-after recruiter due to his deep understanding of the attorney placement field. Dan takes great pride in helping lawyers find the right fit and is constantly developing new strategies to attract top talent and ensure the hiring process is successful. He is well-versed in modern technologies and has a long-term approach which has enabled him to build meaningful relationships and help his clients succeed.
 

Dan Lewis: A Partner Recruiter at BCG Attorney Search

Dan Lewis is a partner recruiter at BCG Attorney Search, a legal recruiter that has worked for over a decade to help match attorneys with the right law firms. BCG has placed thousands of attorneys in top jobs at law firms all over the United States, and Dan has been instrumental in helping them achieve this goal. In addition to his recruiting efforts, Dan is also an experienced attorney, having served as an in-house counsel in multiple industries. This experience gives him a unique perspective on the law firm recruitment process.
 

Stepping Stones in Dan Lewis' Career Path

Dan Lewis is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and was admitted to the California State Bar in 2001. This marked the beginning of his career as an attorney in the State of California. After a few years of practicing as a lawyer, Dan decided to move into the recruitment arena. He initially worked as a consultant with several headhunters, helping them identify and recruit top-tier legal talent. This experience proved invaluable when Dan moved to BCG Attorney Search in 2008.
 

Unique Perspective Gained at BCG Attorney Search

At BCG Attorney Search, Dan Lewis has had a chance to hone his craft in the legal recruitment process as a partner recruiter. He is well-versed in understanding the needs of both attorneys and employers, and his experience has enabled him to bridge the gap between the two. As a result, Dan has been able to match attorneys with the right law firms seamlessly.}
 

Dan Lewis and BCG Attorney Search's Success

Dan Lewis has been a key figure in BCG Attorney Search's success over the last decade. As a partner, he has helped match thousands of attorneys with the right law firms in the United States. His insight and experience in working with both sides of the equation has been invaluable, and BCG has established itself as a top legal recruiter as a result.
 

Advice from Dan Lewis

Dan Lewis believes that the key to being a successful attorney is to have a good understanding of the industry you are entering. This means having a clear understanding of the law, the environment, and the culture of the industry. Dan also believes that networking is a major factor in the legal industry, and having a strong network of contacts will go a long way in helping you find the right fit for you as an attorney. Lastly, Dan believes that developing a proactive approach in the practice of law is essential for any aspiring or current attorney.

We seldom run into anyone with an arcane specialty in law partner recruitment, so it was with considerable anticipation that we met with Dan Lewis, who focuses on law partner placement exclusively and has become one of the acknowledged best in this rare line of work. Dan's a native New Yorker, married with one child and a graduate of Hunter College who has been in the Los Angeles area for the last 16 years. He's with BCG Attorney Search, the nation's largest recruitment firm devoted exclusively to attorney placement in private firms. When asked how he got into this niche aspect of the placement business, he smiled.

"I just sort of fell into it after college," he answered. "I started doing recruiting of business consultants for companies such as Accenture, McKenzie and IBM. After a couple of years of this, it was easy enough to make a sideways move into attorney placement as the compensation level as the career arc is comparable for both business consultants and attorneys. As for partner placement, that was an outgrowth of my earlier experience. As a long-term growth strategy for myself, I wanted to refine my skills in an area where I saw promise and felt I could innovate and contribute."

"And law partner placement was that niche area," we offered.

"Right. But what I soon learned was that considerable patience is required, that much on-going research of the market was necessary to include which firm had a strength or weakness in which particular practice area, who was not getting along with whom, and the like. When you move a partner, you are moving an entire line of business, and that creates a ripple effect. There are a lot of complexities involved with this. For example, a partner is initially attractive because of the amount of portable billings they have. There may be key associates he or she wants to bring along. Some of the portable business may cause potential conflicts. There is almost always more than one individual in the acquiring firm to deal with, and each may have different takes on what the compensation should be and other matters, some of them seemingly unimportant to everyone but the individual raising them. Then there are innumerable timing issues and, as it so often happens, at the last moment someone or something can throw a monkey wrench into the deal."

"Can you give some examples?"

"Sure. Maybe the partner who's going to move is suddenly served with divorce by his wife, a child or parent gets sick or an acquiring partner suddenly gets cold feet. You never know. Because of these and other often untoward complexities, it can and often does take a year or more to put together a partner move. I love the work, don't get me wrong, but it can be frustrating at times."

"Based on your 16 years of experience working with associates and partners, can you offer any advice for our readers, especially those who are not partners?"

"Sure. But first some observations, and they can, for purposes of illustration, be summed up by how I would advise a 2nd-year associate, which differs from what I might say to a 5th-year associate. These two vantage points represent two distinct and important stages of an attorney's career development and are necessary to understand.

"For example, the 2nd-year attorney tends to be too trusting, or, as we say in the trade, 'He's drunk too much Kool-Aid.' What's meant by this is that he has indiscriminately swallowed the propaganda his firm puts out about benefits packages, its caring nature and the like. What the attorney does not realize is that running a law firm is a business and business considerations almost always take precedence over the needs of an individual. In my opinion, and I admit to being biased, an attorney owes ultimate loyalty to his or her career and not to any particular firm. If the firm and the attorney are comfortable with each other, fine. But either can break the contract almost at will. Young attorneys need to keep this in mind and plan accordingly."

"What is it about the 5th-year vantage point that is any different from the advice you'd give to a 2nd-year?"

"Fifth-years must realize that they are at a crossroads and that if they miss a rapidly closing window of opportunity they could relatively quickly find themselves as a 9th- or 10th-year associate either with no partnership on the horizon or the possibility of a partnership they do not want."

"You're telling us that attorneys turn down partnerships?"

"It happens all the time. An attorney acquires a wife and 2.3 children, a nice suburban house, a comfortable life style and, if he becomes a partner, his hours and stress will most probably increase and the nice life style will be only for spouse and children. Sure, I've seen attorneys turn down partnerships. As a corollary, this often means these partners have to leave the firm they're with."

Can I sum up by saying that it is your recommendation to not let your firm convince you that you'll be taken care of for the rest of your life?

"Certainly that would be one very useful piece of advice. But a broader and more general piece of advice is to do your own strategic planning for yourself and never let some one else do that for you. You must think long-term and constantly take time to re-assess where you are and what you want out of life in the future. You should never lock into a plan early in life and stick to it come hell or high water.

"For instance, at the beginning of your career, let's say you have the choice of going with a friend's dad's firm of six attorneys or with a big international firm like Paul Hastings as just one example. If you go with the small firm, your options are limited. If you go with a large firm like Paul Hastings, your options are almost limitless because of the broad exposure you get to law practiced at the highest level, with big and demanding clients, big problems and lots of great training from a lot of different attorneys from a lot of different practice areas. Yet, people will opt for the job with limited upside because they haven't thought the matter through.

"Finally, grades, class ranking and the quality of the law school are paramount and to some degree these pre-determine more legal careers than one might think. On the other hand, I've had my share of candidates from 2nd and 3rd-tier law schools who through hard work stand out and do well. Yet, sadly, there is no getting around school and grades. I've had complicated partner placements well along in development when, to my surprise, the acquiring firm, presumably willing to pay a prospective partner upwards of $1 million annually, asks for the partner's law school grade transcript. I've even had a deal fail because this partner, who was bringing in over $3 million annually to his firm, had mediocre law school grades. Sounds stupid, I know, but it happened."

With that story, we thanked Dan Lewis for his time and asked how his year was going. "Can't provide details, obviously," he said, "But the economy has improved markedly in just the last three months, if that tells you anything."

We asked Dan if he had any last words you wish to leave with our LawCrossing audience.

"Persevere," Dan said. "The law's a great field. There are always opportunities."