The Best Time to Build Your Law Firm’s Talent Pipeline Is Before You Need It
By Steve Fretzin and Eric Gros-Dubois
Growing a law firm is not simply about finding more people. It is about finding the right people before desperation forces you to make the wrong decisions.
There is an enormous difference between hiring because you found someone great and hiring because three people just quit and you need bodies immediately.
Eric Gros-Dubois has experienced both.
Since founding EPGD Business Law in 2013, Eric has grown the firm from a small entrepreneurial venture into an operation with roughly 65 people and 30 lawyers. Along the way, he has dealt with rapid growth, partnership decisions, employee turnover, changing expectations from younger lawyers, outsourcing, AI, recruiting, and the constant challenge of keeping talented people.
His experience reinforces something every managing partner should understand: recruiting and retention should not begin when somebody gives two weeks’ notice.
By then, you may already be behind.
Growth Starts With Being Willing to Enter the Arena
Eric opened our conversation with Theodore Roosevelt’s famous “Man in the Arena” speech.
The quote resonates with him because it reflects a management philosophy he shares with his partner: it is okay to make mistakes when you are actually trying something.
That philosophy goes back to the beginning of Eric’s entrepreneurial journey.
Before starting his firm, Eric had a long list of reasons not to do it. He did not have clients. He did not know how to run a business. He did not understand marketing or sales. He had never run a law firm.
A friend finally called him out.
Those weren’t necessarily reasons he couldn’t start a firm. They were excuses that could prevent him from trying.
That conversation changed the trajectory of his career.
Eric launched his firm in 2013 and spent the first few years going through what he calls the “school of hard knocks.” There were mistakes, lessons, and plenty he had to figure out along the way.
But he was in the arena.
That’s an important lesson for lawyers at every level.
You rarely feel completely prepared for the next stage of your career. Whether it is starting a firm, becoming a partner, hiring your first employee, building a book of business, or expanding into a new market, there will always be reasons to wait.
At some point, growth requires action.
Build Around Complementary Strengths
One of Eric’s most important growth decisions came when a former colleague contacted him about starting his own firm.
Instead of simply giving him advice, Eric saw something bigger.
The two lawyers had complementary skill sets.
His colleague loved the law itself. He enjoyed regulations, litigation, judges, courtrooms, and the technical details of practicing law.
Eric wanted to build the business.
He enjoyed networking, recruiting, job fairs, growth, and the entrepreneurial side of running a firm.
Rather than building two separate businesses, they eventually became partners and ultimately 50/50 owners.
Eric’s reasoning was simple: giving up half of a much larger pie could be significantly better than owning all of a smaller one.
That is a lesson many law firm owners struggle with.
Growth often requires giving up some control.
You hire people because you cannot do everything yourself.
You develop leaders because every decision cannot run through you.
You bring in partners because someone else may possess strengths that you do not.
The question is not whether you can keep 100% of everything.
The better question is what you can build when the right people are sitting beside you.
AI Is Changing What Entry-Level Legal Talent Looks Like
The talent equation is changing quickly.
Eric described how his firm is already outsourcing some administrative positions to Latin America. He has seven remote team members there, and the experience has been largely seamless because digital communication makes geographic distance much less relevant.
AI is creating another shift.
Work that traditionally flowed from law students to junior associates to senior lawyers is becoming compressed.
Historically, a law student might conduct research and create the first draft. A junior attorney would refine it. A senior associate or partner would review and approve the final product.
AI can now assist with portions of the research and drafting that once justified larger classes of summer associates and junior lawyers.
Eric’s firm is responding by reducing its summer associate class and placing greater emphasis on more experienced lawyers developing strong AI skills.
That does not mean junior lawyers are disappearing.
But their value proposition may be changing.
The Human Skills May Become More Valuable as AI Improves
If AI can increasingly assist with research, first drafts, document analysis, and other traditional entry-level work, young lawyers need to consider what machines cannot easily replicate.
Eric pointed directly to client experience, bedside manner, emotional intelligence, and communication.
Think about what that means for the future lawyer.
Academic performance will still matter.
Technical competence will still matter.
Legal judgment will certainly matter.
But the lawyer who can sit across from a nervous client, understand what that person is really worried about, communicate clearly, build trust, develop relationships, and help people navigate difficult situations may become increasingly valuable.
That applies to business development too.
AI can help you research a prospective client.
It can draft an email.
It can summarize an industry.
It can suggest questions.
But it cannot replace your ability to sit with another human being, listen carefully, build rapport, demonstrate empathy, and develop trust.
As technology improves, lawyers should not only ask, “How do I become better at AI?”
They should also ask, “What human skills become more valuable because of AI?”
Don’t Wait Until You Need Someone to Start Recruiting
When I asked Eric how recruiting has changed, one of his most interesting answers was that his basic channels have not changed dramatically.
He uses recruiters.
LinkedIn.
Indeed.
Word of mouth.
But EPGD has also created an internal recruiting structure.
If an employee recruits someone who joins the firm and remains for a year, that employee receives a bonus.
That turns the entire firm into a recruiting network.
Eric has also asked his lawyers to think about attorneys they have encountered on the other side of matters.
Who impressed you?
Who was prepared?
Who was professional?
Who would you respect working beside?
Give Eric the name and he may invite that lawyer for coffee.
That is a completely different mindset from posting a job and hoping the right résumé appears.
It is proactive recruiting.
And it reminds me a great deal of business development.
When lawyers begin thinking about business development consistently, their antenna goes up. They notice the client who just complimented them. They recognize the CPA who serves the same type of businesses. They see opportunities for quality introductions that they previously overlooked.
Recruiting can work the same way.
If everyone in the firm knows you are always interested in great people, they begin noticing great people.
Hire Great People, Not Just Open Positions
Scale has given Eric another advantage.
At roughly 30 lawyers, losing one person is no longer the emergency it would have been when the firm had five or ten attorneys.
That allows the firm to approach recruiting differently.
Instead of saying, “We have an opening. Who can fill it?”
Eric can say, “We found an exceptional person. Can we create an opportunity for them?”
That’s powerful.
It shifts recruiting from reactive to proactive.
When the right person appears, you do not necessarily need to wait until somebody quits.
If that individual fits your culture, brings valuable skills, and can contribute to the firm’s growth, there may be a reason to bring them aboard.
Great businesses are constantly looking for great people.
Desperation Is a Terrible Hiring Strategy
Eric learned this lesson painfully during what became known as the Great Resignation.
His firm was smaller at the time, with roughly 15 lawyers.
Then six lawyers left in approximately six weeks.
Going from 15 lawyers to nine is not normal turnover.
That is an emergency.
And the firm reacted like it was an emergency.
They hired quickly.
They hired people who were not necessarily the right fit.
They were trying to replace capacity instead of patiently identifying the right people.
Looking back, Eric estimates that of all the people they hired during the following six months, only one remains with the firm.
Fortunately, that person became a partner.
But the broader lesson stayed with him.
As Eric explained:
“[Hiring] with wrong intentions or for the wrong motivations [results in] bad decisions.”
The firm’s desperation affected its judgment.
Law firm leaders should pay attention to that.
When you desperately need someone, your standards can begin shifting without you realizing it.
A concern becomes something you can overlook.
A questionable fit becomes “probably fine.”
A résumé you would normally challenge becomes “good enough.”
Then six months later, you may be dealing with an entirely different problem.
The solution is not simply becoming better at interviewing.
It is avoiding desperation in the first place.
Build the Recruiting Pipeline Before the Crisis
Most lawyers understand this principle when it comes to business development.
If you wait until your pipeline is empty before you begin networking, you have waited too long.
The same applies to talent.
Know recruiters before you need recruiters.
Encourage employees to identify strong people.
Stay connected with lawyers you respect.
Watch who performs well across the table from you.
Maintain relationships with former employees who left on good terms.
Pay attention to rising professionals in your market.
Keep your eyes open even when every seat is filled.
You may not have a position today.
That does not mean you should ignore someone you might want on your team tomorrow.
Look for Evidence That Someone Can Commit
When Eric evaluates candidates, one thing he examines carefully is employment history.
He wants to see evidence that someone can stay somewhere.
That does not mean every short tenure automatically disqualifies a candidate.
Life happens.
Firms merge.
Cultures change.
People relocate.
Bad employment situations exist.
Eric himself had a position that lasted only about a year.
But if someone has held eight jobs in eight years, he wants to understand why.
There is a difference between judging someone based on a résumé and noticing a pattern worth investigating.
The key is asking questions.
Why did you leave?
What were you looking for?
What happened?
What would have made you stay?
What are you hoping will be different here?
A résumé tells you what happened.
A thoughtful conversation can help you understand why.
Retention Begins With Showing People Where They Can Go
Eric’s biggest mistake from this episode was not about recruiting.
It was about retaining a high performer.
A client referred her daughter-in-law to the firm while she was still in law school. Eric hired her as an intern.
She excelled.
She became a junior associate.
Then a senior associate.
Eventually, as high performers tend to do, she asked the obvious question.
What comes next?
Partnership.
Eric had never confronted that situation before.
There was no established roadmap.
No written path.
No clearly defined criteria.
The firm made her a junior non-equity partner with the idea that they would figure out equity later.
Six months later, they still did not have a meeting of the minds.
She left for an in-house general counsel position.
Eric realized the problem was bigger than losing one excellent lawyer.
There was no plan.
Put the Path to Partnership in Writing
Eric and his partners went back to the drawing board.
They created a formal path to partnership.
It is now a published document.
Associates receive it.
It is updated annually.
The firm established seven categories associates need to succeed in to be considered for partnership.
Then they created another defined path from junior partner to equity partner.
Now people can see where they are going.
There is another consequence to writing expectations down.
Management has to live with them.
When the next lawyer completed the requirements and asked about equity, Eric could not suddenly move the goalposts.
They had written down the expectations.
That creates accountability in both directions.
Transparency Is a Retention Strategy
Law firms have historically operated with plenty of black boxes.
Bonuses are a black box.
Performance reviews can be a black box.
Compensation can be a black box.
Partnership can be the biggest black box of all.
Work hard.
Keep your head down.
Do good work.
Maybe someday someone will tap you on the shoulder.
That model may have worked better when lawyers assumed they would remain at one firm for decades.
Today, talented people have choices.
If someone cannot understand what advancement looks like at your firm, they may begin looking for a place where the future is clearer.
Transparency does not guarantee retention.
Eric recently lost a junior non-equity partner who had been with the firm for nine and a half years.
No system eliminates turnover.
People leave.
They relocate.
Their goals change.
They start businesses.
They go in-house.
They pursue different careers.
But there is an enormous difference between losing someone because their life changed and losing them because you never explained what their future could look like.
The Goal Isn’t Zero Turnover
Growing firms sometimes view every departure as a failure.
That is unrealistic.
Eric’s firm has many younger employees. Some will get married and relocate. Some will have children. Some will receive opportunities elsewhere. Some will decide they want to become entrepreneurs.
Turnover happens.
The objective should not be keeping everyone forever.
The objective is creating an organization where the right people have strong reasons to stay.
That means good leadership.
Clear expectations.
Opportunity.
Fairness.
Communication.
Professional development.
Transparency.
And a believable future.
When someone excellent eventually leaves after nine and a half years, you may not love losing them.
But that is very different from losing your best people after 18 months because nobody could explain what came next.
Hiring and Business Development Have More in Common Than You Think
As Eric and I talked, I kept seeing parallels between recruiting and business development.
Both require pipelines.
Both become dangerous when you act from desperation.
Both benefit from referrals.
Both require you to recognize opportunities before you urgently need them.
Both work better when people throughout your organization have their antenna up.
And both are ultimately about relationships.
You do not want to begin business development when you desperately need a client.
You do not want to begin recruiting when you desperately need an associate.
The strongest firms are developing both pipelines all the time.
Key Takeaways
- Growth requires being willing to enter the arena before you feel completely prepared.
- Partners with complementary strengths can create a larger opportunity than either could build independently.
- AI and outsourcing are changing the staffing structure of law firms, particularly around administrative and entry-level work.
- As AI handles more technical tasks, communication, emotional intelligence, judgment, and client experience may become increasingly valuable.
- Create a recruiting pipeline before you have an urgent opening.
- Consider employee referral incentives and encourage your lawyers to identify impressive attorneys they encounter professionally.
- When you find an exceptional candidate, consider whether you can create an opportunity instead of waiting for an opening.
- Hiring from desperation can cause firms to overlook warning signs and make poor-fit decisions.
- Employment history can reveal useful patterns, but ask candidates about the circumstances behind shorter tenures.
- High performers need to understand what comes next.
- Put partnership and advancement expectations in writing.
- Transparency creates accountability for employees and firm leadership.
- Retention does not mean preventing every departure. It means giving the right people compelling reasons to stay.
A Quote to Remember
“[Hiring] with wrong intentions or for the wrong motivations [results in] bad decisions.” — Eric Gros-Dubois
Frequently Asked Questions About Law Firm Hiring and Retention
When should a law firm start recruiting?
Before it has an urgent opening. Firms that continually develop relationships with strong candidates, recruiters, employees’ networks, and respected attorneys are less likely to make rushed hiring decisions when turnover occurs.
How can law firms find better candidates?
Use multiple channels, including recruiters, LinkedIn, job platforms, employee referrals, word of mouth, and relationships with lawyers your team encounters professionally. Strong candidates may not always be actively looking for jobs.
Should law firms hire even when they do not have an opening?
If an exceptional person fits the firm’s culture and long-term needs, it may make sense to explore creating a role. This depends on the firm’s finances, workload, and strategy, but proactive hiring can be preferable to waiting until the firm is desperate.
How is AI changing law firm hiring?
AI is increasingly assisting with research, drafting, analysis, and other work traditionally performed by law students and junior lawyers. That may change the number and type of entry-level positions firms require while increasing the importance of AI proficiency and higher-level human skills.
What skills will become more important for young lawyers?
Legal competence remains essential, but communication, emotional intelligence, client service, judgment, relationship building, and comfort with AI may become increasingly important as technology handles more routine work.
What should law firms look for when reviewing a candidate’s work history?
Look for patterns rather than automatically rejecting someone because of one short tenure. Multiple brief positions should prompt questions about why the person left, what they were seeking, and what conditions would encourage them to stay.
Why do law firms make bad hires when they are desperate?
Urgency can cause decision-makers to relax standards, overlook concerns, and focus on filling capacity rather than finding the right long-term fit. Maintaining an active recruiting pipeline reduces this pressure.
How can law firms retain their best associates?
Give them clarity about expectations, performance, compensation, professional development, leadership opportunities, and advancement. High performers are more likely to stay when they understand what their future at the firm can look like.
Should a law firm have a written path to partnership?
A written path can create greater transparency and reduce uncertainty about advancement. It also forces leadership to define expectations and creates accountability when associates meet them.
Can a law firm eliminate employee turnover?
No. People leave for many legitimate reasons, including relocation, family changes, new career goals, entrepreneurship, and in-house opportunities. The goal should be reducing preventable turnover and creating an environment where strong people want to build their careers.
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About Eric Gros-Dubois
Eric Gros-Dubois is the founder of EPGD Business Law, where he leads the firm’s corporate, estate planning, and tax practices out of the Miami office. Holding both a JD and an MBA with a concentration in finance, he combines commercial acumen with a hands-on, solutions-oriented approach to act as a strategic advisor for business owners.
With prior experience spanning commercial litigation, private equity, and tax court representation, Eric focuses on building long-term client relationships and delivering practical solutions to complex personal and business challenges.
Connect With Eric Gros-Dubois
Website: https://www.epgdlaw.com/team/eric-p-gros-dubois/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericgrosdubois/
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