Laterals

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Good reasons to consider Nexsen Pruet

Attracting and retaining talented and experienced attorneys is a key growth priority for our firm. We boast a 94% four-year retention rate for Member-level lateral attorneys, easily besting industry averages.

Establishing your practice at a new firm is a grave endeavor. We take our responsibility to lateral attorneys seriously, and support you in every way we know how.

We begin preparing for your arrival as soon as you decide to join us. Our IT team, our Training Manager, our Business Development team, and Firm Administrators have a well-orchestrated process for covering all the basics- from contacts and communications to photos, phones and practice group meetings, we will make sure you have what you need.

But don’t take our word for it: see what these attorneys had to say in their lateral look-back interviews, verbatim:

Sally Rogers, Governmental Relations and Public Policy Attorney, Columbia Office

Q: What made you decide to come to Nexsen Pruet?
A: I had a conflict at my old firm with my biggest legislative client that we could not get cleared. So my choice was leaving my law firm or my biggest client, and I opted to keep my client.  One of the attorneys here had been doing a good deal of legal work for my client, and I thought it would be good to go to a firm already had a valued relationship with this client.

I was also friends with several attorneys at Nexsen Pruet and had a comfort level with the people here. I knew my client and I would be well-received and well-taken care of.

Nexsen Pruet also has an excellent reputation, and I wanted to be an associated with a firm like that. The firm is also committed to having a top-level government relations practice, and I wanted to be a part of that.

Q: How long have you been here now?
A: Almost two years.

Q: How did your transition go? 
A: Amazingly well. Could not have been better. Nexsen Pruet was wonderful in that the firm allowed me to bring my assistant, and that helped me tremendously, and now she supports the government relations practice as a whole.  She is very happy here, too!

Q: What surprised you about your transition?
A: Probably how easy it was. It took a conflict situation to get me in gear to make a change, but now I am so happy to be at Nexsen Pruet.

Q. What would you tell someone else who was considering a move to Nexsen Pruet?
A. Very seriously consider it. It was an excellent change for me. I think it is an outstanding firm, and I encourage an attorney considering a lateral change definitely to explore it.

Q. How has your transition impacted your client relationships?
A. It has impacted them positively. All my clients came with me to Nexsen Pruet, and they have all been happy with the firm.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like for people to know about the lateral experience at NP?
A: Overall, everything has worked very well. I am happier at work, and I’ve had many friends comment on that. It has been a good change for me all the way around.

John E. Skvarla III, Senior Government Relations Advisor, Raleigh Office

Q: What made you decide to come to Nexsen Pruet? 
A: I decided to join the firm for several reasons. Nexsen Pruet has an extraordinary reputation for economic development and, having come directly from my role as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, it was certainly an area in which I wanted to stay involved. Another draw to the firm for me was that the firm isn’t large but it isn’t small, either – it has the power of a large firm but the flexibility of a small firm. Decisions don’t have to be quite as lengthy as a firm with 800 or 1,000 attorneys yet we have eight offices across two states which is very powerful. From a business and economic development standpoint, we have the power of competition. This flexibility also extends our ability to be more creative and to get things done on a cooperative, yet competitive, basis. And finally, I was drawn to the quality of the people. Nexsen Pruet has a reputation of having excellent people and I always want to associate myself with people that are better and smarter than I am.

Q: How long have you been with Nexsen Pruet?
A: Less than a year.

Q: How was your transition?
A: It was great! The people are wonderful – everyone is here to help and there are support services everywhere you look. I haven’t practiced law in quite a while and I’m an old school kind of guy so I’m unaccustomed to having this level of support but it’s been wonderful. From human resources to IT, the people are phenomenal.

Q: What surprised you about your transition?
A: I wasn’t really surprised by anything. I knew what I was getting into. If anything, my transition surprised me by how much it exceeded my expectations!

Q: What would you tell someone who was considering a move to Nexsen Pruet?
A: You would be joining a firm that prides itself on excellence, a firm that demands excellence. Nexsen Pruet will give you the opportunity and the support to achieve as far as your mind’s eye can envision. The firm is diversified enough to give you opportunities in every area of business and law that you might aspire to involve yourself in, you just have to take the first step.

Mary Shahid, Environmental Attorney, Charleston Office

Q: So Mary, you could’ve gone anywhere. What made you decide to come to Nexsen Pruet?
A: The personalities of the individual attorneys in the Charleston office, collegial climate, and business opportunities.

Q: How long have you been here now?
A: My how time flies! It’s been 2 years and 4 months.

Q: How did your transition go?
A: I felt my transition went very well. Nexsen Pruet knows how to welcome new lawyers and it’s really seamless. You are working one day somewhere else, and the next day here- there really isn’t much downtime. You can hit the ground running.

Q: What surprised you about your transition?
A: I came from what I thought was one big firm to another big firm. But it’s turned out that this big firm is much more intense. The activity level here is very high. There are always emails for the good of the group, the sharing of information, lots of practice group activity, and just generally lots of activity up and down the hall. There are also many more client and office social activities here than I was used to. That’s not a negative- it’s a symptom of a high-functioning place.

The other thing that surprised me was the secretary to lawyer ratio. Where I came from the secretary to lawyer ratio was 1:2. Here, it is generally 1:4. That was unexpected, but it’s worked out fine.

Q. What would you tell someone else who was considering a move to Nexsen Pruet?
A. I would encourage it! I’ve been in touch with a number of people and encouraged them to come here. It’s a collaborative atmosphere, and there is a lot of sharing and distribution of good work, and I don’t see a downside.

Q. How has your transition impacted your client relationships?
A. I worked hard on that as I didn’t want to lose anyone in the transition. And I didn’t. No one left me, and I felt good about it.

If you have been practicing for more than seven years and would like to see if your practice fits in with Nexsen Pruet's strategic growth plan, please reach out to Jean Anne Ferner, our Chief Professionals Officer, confidentially at jferner@nexsenpruet.com.  Otherwise, please email your resume information to Summer Winslow at recruiting@nexsenpruet.com.