Partner Toolkit · For Candidates
Build your lateral business case.
Build your entire business case privately, on this device — nothing is uploaded, nothing reaches your current firm, and naming your current firm is optional. Download the PDF and walk away, or share it with us only when you're ready.
Your lateral business case — built in eight private steps.
The whole tool runs in your browser. Eight short sections, a few minutes each, with helper text on every field. Banded figures only — you never type an exact book or compensation number. Download the branded PDF and keep it; share it with us only if you want a consultant to help.
Private by design — your answers stay on this device. Nothing is uploaded, nothing reaches your current firm, and naming your current firm is optional. The PDF is generated in your browser.
Pre-filled from your Book of Business read
We've carried your Book of Business read into the relevant fields — review and edit each one. Nothing was sent.
Step 1 of 8
Private by design. Yours to keep.
Three steps. The whole tool runs in your browser, your answers autosave locally, and the PDF is generated on your device. Sharing it with us is a separate, deliberate choice.
- I
Answer eight short sections
Each maps to a section a hiring firm reads — practice summary, book of business, portability, projection, growth, team and the ask. Helper text guides every field; figures are banded ranges, never exact numbers; naming your current firm is optional. Progress saves to your browser as you go.
- II
Download your branded business case
A polished, multi-page PDF generates on your device and downloads to you. Refine it, send it yourself, or keep it private. Nothing is uploaded to build it.
- III
Share it with us — only if you want to
Optionally send it to Sartori & Partners in confidence. We'll pressure-test your portability client-by-client, prepare your LPQ, and take it to the right platforms — with your name attached to nothing until you say so. You pay no fee; the hiring firm does.
Related: the Book of Business engine models your portability first · the partner's guide to lateral moves · practice context for Corporate & M&A and Private Equity · or start a conversation.
How much of your book actually moves when you lateral?
Answer first: far less than partners assume. Across the lateral market, partners claim to port roughly 57% of their clients, but the verified figure is closer to 35% (Decipher, via ABA Law Practice Today, 2019). Build your plan around what moves — not what you hope moves.
The gap between the believed book and the booked book is the single most expensive error a lateral makes. Roughly 73% of clients tend to stay with the original firm rather than follow a departing partner (Acritas, via Decipher Intelligence) — institutional relationships are loyal to the brand, the bench and the rate card, not to one name on the letterhead. Even on the clients who do move, the book is not delivered on day one: about 70% of a stated book typically follows, with the drop-off concentrated over the first ~18 months (ABA / NALP, 2019). A plan that prices in that curve reads as credible; a plan that assumes 100% ports in year one reads as a red flag to the very committee deciding your guarantee.
A guarantee underwrites a defensible book, not an inflated one. The number you can prove is worth more than the number you wish you had.
Why do so many lateral moves fail — and how does the plan protect you?
Because the book was oversold. Nearly half of lateral partners leave within five years, and around 67% of firms report a lateral departing for failing to bring the expected business (Decipher / ALM, via Thomson Reuters Institute). The firm underwrites your book against a 3–5 year lookback of originations, collections and realization — and Am Law 100 realization itself sat at about 81% in 2023 (The American Lawyer), so even collected revenue is discounted from billings. A measured projection, with the reasons some business will not move stated plainly, keeps you out of those statistics. It is leverage, not weakness.
How much book of business do I need to lateral?
It depends on the platform and the seniority track, and the precise threshold is a private conversation. As a banded guide, Am Law 100 partner laterals are typically expected to show a portable book in the region of $1–2M+ — and $1–3M+ in the top markets — with the bar rising for an equity seat. What matters more than the headline is the portable share: a smaller book that is genuinely yours outvalues a larger book that is institutional. The scale below is illustrative and banded; your real number turns on client-by-client facts.
Entry expectation for many Am Law 100 partner laterals (banded).
Thomson Reuters Institute / ALM (lateral market) ↗The market is active, which both helps and raises the bar. Lateral hiring rose roughly 16% year-on-year in 2025, with partner-level hiring up about 18% (NALP, 2026) — firms are buying, but they are buying underwritten books, not headline numbers.
From stated book to delivered book: the portability waterfall
Each step below is where book value leaks. The plan's job is to name the leaks before the firm does — so the number you commit to is the number you deliver. (Structural illustration of the cited pattern, not a calculation.)
- Stated bookWhat you bill today, gross.
- − RealizationCollected ÷ billed ≈ 81% (Am Law 100, 2023).
- − Institutional clientsLoyal to the firm, not to you — they stay.
- − Locked matters & rate stepMid-file work and rate-sensitive clients shed.
- Delivered bookWhat actually moves ≈ 35% of the claimed book.
Business plan vs. Lateral Partner Questionnaire (LPQ): what is the difference?
Answer first: the LPQ is the firm's standardised due-diligence form — it captures the numbers. The business plan is your narrative case — it tells the story. They sit side by side, and a strong move needs both. Our guide to the LPQ covers the questionnaire itself.
| Business plan (business case) | Lateral Partner Questionnaire (LPQ) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Your narrative case for the move — practice, portable book, projection, growth strategy and the ask. | The firm's standardised due-diligence form; NALSC publishes a "Universal" LPQ to standardise it. |
| Who owns it | You. You write it, you keep it, you decide who sees it. | The hiring firm. It sets the questions and the format. |
| What it covers | Why you're portable and where you're going — the persuasive, forward-looking case. | A 3–5 year lookback of originations, collections, billing, realization, conflicts and high/medium/low portability estimates. |
| Time horizon | Forward: a 12–24 month revenue projection and a growth roadmap. | Backward: a verified historical record the firm underwrites against. |
| Tone | Persuasive but defensible — banded figures, honest about what won't move. | Evidential and exact — the numbers must reconcile to firm records. |
Sources
5 references- What Departing Partners Get Wrong About Portability (Decipher Intelligence read) americanbar.org ↗
- Lateral Hiring Best Practices Guide / lateral partner data (NALP) nalp.org ↗
- The Lateral Partner Market & failed-lateral economics (Thomson Reuters Institute) thomsonreuters.com ↗
- Am Law 100 financials — realization (The American Lawyer / Law.com) law.com ↗
- Universal Lateral Partner Questionnaire (NALSC) nalsc.org ↗
Clean sources only — NALP, ABA Law Practice Today, ALM / Law.com, Thomson Reuters Institute, NALSC, and Decipher Intelligence (citing Acritas). Recruiter / search / ALSP sources are excluded. Figures are banded and directional.
Questions partners ask
What is a lateral partner business plan, and who reads it?
A lateral partner business plan — sometimes called a business case — is the document a partner presents to a target law firm to make the case for their move. It puts "meat on the bones" of the Lateral Partner Questionnaire: your practice summary, your current book of business, how portable it is, a realistic revenue projection, your growth strategy, team needs, integration timeline, and what you're asking for. It's read by the hiring firm's practice-group and management leadership as the basis for an offer.
How is this different from the Lateral Partner Questionnaire (LPQ)?
The LPQ is the firm's standardised due-diligence form — a three-to-five-year lookback of originations, collections, billing and conflicts, with high/medium/low portable-business estimates. The National Association of Legal Search Consultants now publishes a "Universal" LPQ to standardise it. The business plan is your narrative case that sits alongside it: where you want to go and how you'll get there. Our guide to the LPQ covers the questionnaire itself.
Why are the figures banded instead of exact?
Two reasons. First, the precise number is a conversation, not a web form — you should never commit an exact book or compensation figure to a document before you've decided to move. Second, banded ranges read as more credible and protect you: firms underwrite the book, and a defensible range beats a precise figure you later have to walk back. We pressure-test the real numbers with you in private.
Is anything submitted to my current firm or anyone else?
No. Nothing you enter reaches your current partnership, and your name and plan never go to a target firm without your explicit, firm-by-firm authorisation. The plan PDF generates in your browser and downloads to you. If you choose to share it with us, it comes to Sartori & Partners in confidence so a consultant can help — that's it.
Do I have to share the plan to use the tool?
No. You can complete every step, download your branded business case PDF, and walk away — it's yours to refine and use however you like. Sharing it with us is optional, and it's how we can pressure-test your portability, prepare your LPQ, and take it to the right platforms. As a candidate you pay no fee; the hiring firm does.
How realistic should my revenue projection be?
Realistic wins. Hiring firms know it's unlikely 100% of current revenue ports in the first twelve months — Acritas research cited by Decipher Intelligence found roughly 73% of clients stay with the original firm rather than follow a departing partner. A measured projection, with the reasons some business may not move, reads as more credible than an inflated one and keeps you out of the failed-lateral statistics.
The mover's side
A plan is a start. A conversation is the move.
Built your business case? Share it with us, or just talk it through. We represent the partner, not the firm's hiring need — and we'll tell you honestly if staying is the better call.