Business Planning for Mobile Partners

Law is a business. You may have gone to law school to become a professional; but as you get more senior, your marketability will not be determined by your legal skills. Instead, your ability to make a lateral move is likely to be determined by your "portables". While you can demonstrate the value you bring by providing the new firm with several years of information about your originations, a better practice is to come up with a business plan which shows how you would leverage the new platform to generate work.

My colleague, Jamie Bailey, from BCG's Chicago office, has come up with a great outline to help partners put together an effective business plan. It is a great starting point for anyone contemplating a lateral move. And if you are not at that point yet (i.e. if you are still trying to evaluate your experience, I have created a career audit for partners. Send me and e-mail and I'll be happy to share. It is not an on-line tool like my associate career audit, but eventually, it will be available on-line.