Assistant Director: Lateral Partner Integration

Overview

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world’s major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.We are a collegial, collaborative firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realize their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm’s client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.If you enjoy working with team members whose defining characteristics are exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, you may be the person we are seeking to join our Business Development and Marketing department in our Chicago or New York office, as an Assistant Director: Lateral Partner Integration.

The Assistant Director of Lateral Partner Integration is responsible, on a global basis, for ensuring the successful onboarding, transition, and performance ramp-up of lateral partners joining the firm. This individual will act as the strategic point of contact for new partners, coordinating all aspects of integration — cultural, operational, client-facing, and business development — with a focus on accelerating revenue generation and deepening connectivity across the firm. This role reports to the Senior Director of Commercial Strategy & Growth and serves as the single point of accountability for the integration lifecycle through month 12. This role is critical to ensuring the firm’s investment in lateral hiring results in productivity, client retention, and long-term partnership success.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions: 

Pre-Arrival Preparation

• Build and manage the pre-start integration process to reduce uncertainty and ensure readiness
• Coordinate early introductions with key administrative contacts (IT, HR, Legal Resources, billing, records, talent, etc.)
• Develop and circulate pre-arrival integration checklists and follow-up communications
• Coordinate LPQ intake, conflicts clearance, and ethical walls, ensuring matter opening and client communications align with applicable rules

Onboarding & First 48-Hour Experience

• Working with the Lateral Partner Hiring team and key business services professionals throughout our network, ensure a structured onboarding schedule that includes key orientations and relationship-building
• Prevent "bystander effect” by clearly assigning responsibilities and monitoring follow-through
• Balance onboarding tasks with client demands by prioritizing IT access, communications, and seamless client transition
• Own Day 0/Day 2 access SLAs (SSO, DMS, time/billing, CRM, collaboration tools) and confirm device provisioning and security compliance
• Publish a 30/60/90/180/365 integration plan with KPIs tied to the hiring business case, reviewed monthly with sponsors

Primary Point of Contact

• Develop protocols for defining primary point of contact depending on whether the hire is a standard practice hire or a member of the Accelerated Growth or Priority Product areas
• Serve as the lateral partner’s main internal contact (“their person”) for all questions, issues, and guidance (may differ if Practice managers act as primary contact with AG hires)
• Act as liaison to business services stakeholders, enabling partners to stay client-focused
• Maintain high-touch, responsive communication through the full integration period. This includes not only the Lateral Partner but the Lateral Partner Sponsoring Partner(s) as well

Ongoing Check-ins & Support

• Conduct regular integration check-ins (first week, first month, quarterly, etc.)
• Proactively identify gaps in onboarding, unmet needs, or emerging risks
• Provide tools such as business plan templates and key upcoming deadlines

Business & Client Synergy Mapping

• Collaborate with business development, Lateral Partner Sponsor Partner(s), and practice leadership to identify client overlaps and integration opportunities
• Facilitate introductions to client relationship partners and cross-practice colleagues
• Track and encourage expansion of the lateral’s client work within the firm

Integration Roadmap Development

• Create individualized 6–12 month integration plans for each lateral partner dependent upon the rationale for hire
• Include visibility milestones, internal and external activities, and client introductions
• Standardize “baseline” integration tasks applicable to all lateral partners

Internal & External Visibility Support

• Drive internal visibility through meetings, partner lunches, retreats, roadshows, etc.
• Coordinate external visibility: publications, conferences, thought leadership, sponsorships, and importantly, client visits
• Ensure partner’s market profile is tied effectively to the firm’s brand

Accountability & Reporting

• Work with integration sponsors and practice leaders to ensure follow-through
• Support assignment of integration teams and ownership structures
• Track both qualitative feedback and quantitative metrics and report to leadership
• Maintain regular ROI assessment of Lateral hires, assessing revenue generation, client retention, performance against business plan, collaboration and integration

Qualifications

Education/Training/Certifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in human resources, recruiting, marketing, or communications. A combination of education and/or experience may be considered in lieu of the degree when the experience has been directly related to the functions of the role.

Professional Experience:

• Ten years or more of experience in a law firm or professional services environment. Prior experience in partner-level onboarding, talent management, recruiting, or professional development preferred. 
• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder processes across offices or regions
• Direct experience working with senior lawyers, practice leaders, or executive leadership
• Experience coordinating functions across HR, IT, conflicts, finance, and business development
• Experience developing or executing structured onboarding or integration programs (strongly preferred)
• Strong understanding of law firm economics, partnership structures, and lateral hiring dynamics
• Familiarity with legal industry market trends and competitive talent landscape
• Knowledge of cross-selling, client development, and practice integration concepts
• Understanding of confidentiality, conflicts, legal ethics, and partner mobility risk factors

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products
• Experience with CRM systems (e.g. InterAction) and/or talent systems
• Ability to track and report integration metrics and pull data-driven insights
• Comfortable learning and using legal tech, onboarding tools, and business intelligence platforms
• Strong writing skills for drafting onboarding plans, executive updates, and communications

 Performance Traits:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate effectively and in a professional manner with all levels of the Firm and outside contacts
• Highly responsive, service-oriented, and proactive in communication
• Exceptional relationship-builder — able to engage senior lateral partners immediately
• Ability to work in a diverse team environment and effectively support the demanding needs of the Firm
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines with shifting priorities
• Must be a self-starter with a high level of initiative
• Strong customer service skills, able to anticipate needs and exercise independent judgment
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple projects
• Maintains confidentiality and exercises discretion
• Exercises solid strategic thinking and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated good judgment, a team-first orientation, meticulous and results driven.
• Designs and executes integration plans that adapt to different practices, personalities, and markets
• Identifies onboarding gaps, unmet needs, and emerging risks before they become problems
• Anticipates challenges related to tech access, client transitions, or internal resource alignment
• Analyzes client lists to find synergies, overlaps, and cross-selling opportunities
• Tracks data and integration metrics to assess success and refine strategies
• Prioritizes tasks based on impact — e.g., IT first, to ensure client continuity
• Balances conflicting priorities (onboarding vs. client deadlines)
• Develops scalable processes (e.g., standardized checklists + custom plans)
• Uses dashboards (e.g., Power BI) to analyze pipeline, matter opens, and collections vs. plan

Management Accountabilities:

• Manages the full lateral integration lifecycle from pre-arrival to post-integration
• Coordinates and oversees internal stakeholders across departments
• Assigns responsibilities clearly and monitors follow-through (“anti-bystander” leadership)
• Leads integration team efforts and partner sponsors
• Manages relationship-building activity between the lateral and firm partners
• Oversees onboarding structure, visibility programming, and cross-practice synergies
• Owns reporting to leadership on progress, risks, and results
• Influences without authority — key skill for working with senior partners
• Demonstrates leadership and supervisory experience including managing projects and workflows, effectively leveraging business services team support as needed
• Leads by example, providing guidance, coaching, and mentorship
• Tracks ROI against the hiring business case
• Prepares monthly financial snapshots and recommends course corrections
• Operational budget analysis and recommendations
• Conducts analysis of staffing levels and participation in the recruitment process
• Able to determine and implement change processes to improve workflow efficiencies
• Process- and service-oriented with strong leadership and project management skills
• High/premium quality orientation
• Able to set priorities and delegate in an efficient manner
• Analysis of staffing levels and requests for assistance
• Operational budget analysis and recommendations

The typical pay scale for this position is between $182,000 and $250,000, although the actual wage or salary could be lower or higher if the candidate’s education, experience, skills and internal pay alignment are different from those specified. 

The above is a general description of the essential duties associated with this position and does not represent an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all duties.

The Firm may modify and amend this job description at any time at its sole discretion. Nothing herein creates a contract of employment or otherwise modifies the at-will nature of employment.

We offer competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits, including medical/dental/vision/life/and AD&D insurance, 401(k) savings plan, back-up childcare and eldercare, generous paid time off (PTO), as well as opportunities for professional development and growth.

Thank you for your interest in Mayer Brown. We are committed to providing equal opportunity and reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities and disabled veterans. To request a reasonable accommodation related to the application process and/or job interview, please email [email protected]. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

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