Guide
The Lateral Partner Questionnaire (LPQ), explained
The LPQ is where a lateral partner move is won or lost on paper. Here is what the questionnaire asks, why each section exists, how firms define and test a portable book of business, and how to complete it accurately without overreaching.
What a Lateral Partner Questionnaire actually is
The Lateral Partner Questionnaire — almost always shortened to LPQ — is the structured form a law firm asks a partner candidate to complete once both sides are seriously exploring a move. It is the firm's primary diligence instrument: a single document that gathers the candidate's practice, client relationships, financial history, conflicts, and professional-conduct record into one comparable format.
The point of standardization is fairness and rigor. A firm's partnership, compensation, finance and conflicts committees cannot make a sound decision on a recruiter's narrative alone. The LPQ forces the same questions to be answered by every candidate, so the firm can weigh a hire against its own thresholds — and against the other partners it is considering — on consistent terms.
Many firms build their forms on the well-known frameworks published by the American Bar Association and the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), whose lateral-hiring and partner-questionnaire guidance is the de facto reference point in the US market. No two firms ask exactly the same thing, but the categories below appear in almost every LPQ you will encounter.
Treat the LPQ as the firm's first real read on your judgment. Accurate, well-organized answers signal a partner who runs a disciplined practice; vague or inflated ones invite exactly the scrutiny you want to avoid.
What the LPQ asks — section by section
Most questionnaires move from who you are, to what you do, to what you bring, to what the firm must check before it can extend an offer.
1. Background and credentials
- Education, bar admissions and the jurisdictions in which you are licensed and in good standing.
- Employment history, including dates and titles at each prior firm or in-house role.
- Practice area(s), seniority and your role within your current firm's structure.
2. Practice and clients
- A description of your practice and the kinds of matters you handle.
- Your significant client relationships — and, critically, who actually owns each relationship.
- Whether work is recurring or one-off, and how much depends on a single client or referral source.
3. Financial history
- Originations — the revenue credited to you for business you brought in, typically over the last three to five years.
- Billings and collections — what was billed and what was actually collected, year over year.
- Billing rates, realization, and any write-offs or recurring collection issues.
- Working attorney / responsible attorney credit, where the firm tracks it separately.
4. Conflicts
- A list of clients and adverse parties sufficient for the new firm to run a conflicts check.
- Matters that may be subject to ethical screens, joint representations or prior-firm restrictions.
5. Professional conduct and disclosures
- Bar disciplinary history, malpractice claims, and any sanctions or investigations.
- Litigation involving you, and the circumstances of prior departures.
- Non-compete, notice, or client-transition obligations at your current firm.
6. References and forward-looking detail
- Professional references the firm may contact, usually later in the process and with your consent.
- Your rationale for the move and your view of what is realistically portable.
Portable book of business: what counts, and what does not
More lateral hires turn on this question than any other. A firm is not buying your historical revenue — it is buying the revenue it can expect after you move.
A portable book of business is the client work you can realistically take with you to a new firm. The hard part is that “realistically” does a lot of work. Revenue that looks like yours on a year-end report may not move at all if the relationship belongs to an institutional team, a co-counsel, your current firm's brand, or a client whose engagement letters or procurement rules tie it to the incumbent.
Firms therefore separate your originations into three buckets, and only the first is truly portable:
- Portable, controlled work — clients who follow you, where you are the genuine relationship owner and the work can transition cleanly.
- Shared or institutional work — relationships you contribute to but do not control, which typically stay with the current firm or its team.
- Non-portable work — matters tied to the platform, conflicted at the new firm, or one-off in nature.
How firms test portability
- Relationship ownership. Who does the client call first? Whose judgment do they buy? A name on the origination report is not the same as control.
- Multi-year collections. A consistent collections history across several years is far more persuasive than one strong year, which can mask a single large matter.
- Concentration risk. A book that is 70% one client is more fragile than the headline number suggests.
- Conflicts at the destination. Business is not portable if the new firm cannot take it. Conflicts are checked before, not after, an offer.
- Recurring vs. episodic. Annuity-style work supports a confident projection; deal- or matter-driven revenue is discounted accordingly.
How to present your book honestly
The instinct to round up is understandable and almost always counter-productive. Firms diligence these numbers, and a book that comes in well under the figure you quoted damages trust at exactly the moment compensation is being set. Present directional ranges you can defend, distinguish controlled work from shared work explicitly, and let the multi-year history carry the argument. For how compensation tiers map to a credible book — and for the one hard, sourced data set we publish — see our BigLaw associate salary scale for 2026, which anchors the lower end of the pay structure a partner candidate is benchmarked against. Figures of this kind are directional, as of 2026, and vary by market, firm, sector and hours.
How firms diligence the LPQ
Once your questionnaire is in, it stops being a form and becomes the basis of a structured review. Knowing the path it travels helps you complete it for the audience that actually reads it.
A completed LPQ typically moves through several gates inside the hiring firm, each looking at the same document for a different reason:
- Conflicts clearance first. Before anything else, the conflicts team runs your client and adverse-party list. A serious, unwaivable conflict can end a process regardless of how strong the book is — which is why this section must be complete and accurate.
- Financial verification. Finance reviews your originations, billings and collections for internal consistency and against the firm's economic thresholds, and will probe concentration and realization.
- Professional-conduct and reference checks. Bar standing, disclosures and references are verified. Anything omitted that later surfaces is treated as a judgment problem, not just a fact problem.
- Partnership and compensation review. The relevant committees weigh strategic fit, the credibility of the portable book, and where you would sit in the firm's compensation system.
The throughline is verification. Everything material on an LPQ is checkable, and reputable firms check it. That is the strongest practical argument for completing the questionnaire candidly and precisely the first time: it is the version of you the decision-makers will rely on, and the one diligence will test.
For the wider picture of how lateral moves are sourced, sequenced and closed in the current market, read our overview of lateral partner hiring.
Where this guidance comes from
We benchmark lateral processes against the recognized US references rather than invented figures. These are the sources that inform our work and that candidates and firms should consult directly.
- American Bar Association (ABA) — ethics opinions and lateral-hiring guidance covering conflicts, client confidentiality and professional-conduct obligations during a move.
- National Association for Law Placement (NALP) — the widely used lateral-hiring and partner-questionnaire frameworks that shape how most US firms structure their LPQs.
- State bar rules of professional conduct — the binding source on confidentiality, conflicts and client-transition duties in your jurisdiction.
We do not publish invented origination or collection figures. Where this guide refers to compensation, the one hard, sourced data set we maintain is our BigLaw associate salary scale for 2026; all other ranges are directional, as of 2026, and vary by market, firm, sector and hours.
Lateral Partner Questionnaire: common questions
What is a Lateral Partner Questionnaire?
The Lateral Partner Questionnaire (LPQ) is the standardized form a law firm asks a partner candidate to complete during the recruiting process. It captures the information the firm needs to evaluate the move on the merits — practice and clients, a financial history of originations and collections, conflicts data, professional-conduct disclosures, and references — in a structure its partnership and finance committees can compare against other candidates and against the firm's own thresholds.
How long is a typical LPQ and how long does it take to complete?
There is no universal length. Many firms use a multi-page form modeled on the widely referenced ABA / NALP frameworks; some are short, others run to dozens of questions with multi-year financial schedules. Most candidates need several focused sessions — and often help pulling collections and origination figures from their current firm's systems — so it is wise to begin gathering data early rather than treating the LPQ as a last-minute formality.
What is a “portable book of business” and how is it tested?
Portable business is the client work a partner can realistically bring to a new firm, as distinct from work that stays with the current firm, an institutional team, or a relationship the partner does not actually control. Firms pressure-test portability by asking who the true relationship owner is, the multi-year collections history of each client, whether there are conflicts at the new firm, and whether the work is recurring or one-off. Directional, defensible numbers beat optimistic ones.
Is the information in an LPQ confidential?
Reputable firms treat LPQ data as highly confidential and circulate it only to the committees that need it. Even so, you should never disclose privileged client information, client identities your engagements require you to protect, or anything that breaches your current firm's policies. A good recruiter helps you describe your practice and economics accurately while staying inside your professional-conduct and confidentiality obligations.
Do I have to disclose disciplinary history, malpractice claims, or prior departures?
Yes. LPQs ask about bar standing, disciplinary matters, malpractice claims and similar items precisely so the firm can assess them openly. Non-disclosure that later surfaces during diligence is far more damaging than the underlying item itself. The right approach is candid, contextualized disclosure handled early in the process.
Should I complete an LPQ before or after meeting the firm?
Usually after initial, confidential conversations establish mutual interest and fit. The LPQ is a diligence instrument, not a first-contact document — sharing detailed financials before there is genuine, two-sided interest exposes sensitive data for little benefit. Sequencing those conversations correctly is part of what a specialist recruiter manages.
Keep reading
Where this guide connects across the practice — for partners weighing a move and for firms running a lateral search.
For Partner Candidates
How we manage a confidential lateral move end to end, from first conversation to a credible portable-book conversation.
For partners considering a moveLateral Partner Recruiting
Our search practice for law firms hiring laterals and lifting out practice groups — discreet, market-mapped, conflicts-aware.
Explore partner & lateral recruitingLateral Partner Hiring
The wider market view: how lateral moves are sourced, sequenced and closed, and what the LPQ fits into.
Read the lateral hiring overviewConfidential by default
Considering a lateral move? Start with a private conversation.
We help partners frame a practice, present a defensible book of business, and navigate the LPQ inside their professional obligations — and we help firms run the diligence rigorously. No obligation, complete discretion.