If you’re not familiar with "secondment," a British-derived military
term for temporarily transferring someone from one regiment to another,
the time is nigh.  In law-land, the context in which it matters
is firms "loaning" partners or associates to clients for interim tours
of duty.  Why?  Well, for example:

  • a public-company client just spun off a division which all of a sudden
    finds itself without a legal department;
  • an established client finds its legal department abruptly, but temporarily,
    short-handed (think maternity leave or short-term disability);
  • either the client or (less likely, OK) the firm wants to establish
    a closer relationship.

Financial arrangements vary, and the article discussing
this is next to opaque on the topic (for starters, it’s unclear whether
the client’s payments cover the direct costs of the firm’s lawyer), but
secondments appear to have revived in the 21st Century after being commonplace
in the 1960’s and ’70’s (before in-house corporate departments bulked
up) and after having essentially died out in the 1980’s and ’90’s.

Two observations:

  • Essentially every firm cited in the piece is California-based (UK
    firms aside, that is); and
  • A commonly cited fear is that sending an associate to a client is
    an invitation to poach the associate.

Observations:  (1)  With this as with so many trends,
California initiates, the country follows (I lived in Palo Alto
for three years while at law school, so I can claim personal knowledge);
and (2) Why on earth would a firm not be delighted if
a client "poaches" an associate?  Won’t they then be a
client for as long as that alum has influence?

Related Articles

Email Delivery

Get Our Latest Articles Delivered to your inbox +
X

Sign-up for email

Be the first to learn of Adam Smith, Esq. invitation-only events, surveys, and reports.





Get Our Latest Articles Delivered to Your Inbox

Like having coffee with Adam Smith, Esq. in the morning (coffee not included).

Oops, we need this information
Oops, we need this information
Oops, we need this information

Thanks and a hearty virtual handshake from the team at Adam Smith, Esq.; we’re glad you opted to hear from us.

What you can expect from us:

  • an email whenever we publish a new article;
  • respect and affection for our loyal readers. This means we’ll exercise the strictest discretion with your contact info; we will never release it outside our firm under any circumstances, not for love and not for money. And we ourselves will email you about a new article and only about a new article.

Welcome onboard! If you like what you read, tell your friends, and if you don’t, tell us.

PS: You know where to find us so we invite you to make this a two-way conversation; if you have an idea or suggestion for something you’d like us to discuss, drop it in our inbox. No promises that we’ll write about it, but we will faithfully promise to read your thoughts carefully.