The Boston BigLaw legal market is booming. There are more associate openings that there are qualified attorneys to fill them. So if you're a BigLaw associate that has been thinking about moving to Boston, now is the time.

Law firms in Boston cover lots of different practice areas, with much of the work driven by industries like financial services, technology and life sciences. Although Boston is not one of the largest cities population-wise in the country, it is one of the largest legal markets. This is because these key industries in Boston demand a lot of different types of transactional, regulatory and dispute-related legal services.

For BigLaw associates who are considering moving to Boston, I have created a FREE attorney relocation guide. The guide provides an overview of all the things that an associate needs to think about if they are looking at law firms in Boston including: practice area demands, specific firms, compensation trends, bar admission and attorney culture, as well as practical considerations for a geographic relocation. Here is an excerpt:

Much like New York and the Bay Area, the demand for lateral associates in the Boston legal market is highest in corporate and transactional practices. The needs within corporate work are fairly specialized, tied to the key industries and corporate entities in the city. Below are the most in-demand practice areas...

The pandemic has put geographic relocation on the minds of a lot of BigLaw associates. Some are moving back to their homes from when they are younger. Others are looking at the ideal places to start or raise families. Boston is a city that offers the charm, culture and comfort of living in New England with a very sophisticated and well-compensated legal market.

In order to make a successful geographic move as a BigLaw associate, you need a legal recruiter with an expert understanding of all the factors and complications. This includes issues regarding bar admission requirements, transferring and selling your specific practice, relocation costs and expenses. As a full-service recruiter and career advisor, I create detailed search lists for my candidates and assist each candidate on every step in the search: detailed and tailored material review, applications, interview preparation and offer evaluation and negotiation.

To start, download my Boston relocation guide and if you or someone you know needs advice on making a lateral move, please reach out to me at Gridline Search + Consulting.

It's becoming both easier and more popular to make a geographic move as a BigLaw associate. This is the result of a few trends when it comes to the legal labor market:

• The expansion of the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) to more states across the country means that it's easier for lawyers to get admitted into multiple states at once and/or transfer bar exam results from one state to another.

• Multiple legal markets are very strong right now and the need for talent expands beyond the lawyers that are already practicing there (this is particularly the case when it comes to Boston and the Bay Area).

• Generally speaking, the number of associates making a lateral move of some kind is at an all-time high with the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) reporting an average number of 16.5 lateral hires in 2018 amongst a surveyed group of 428 law offices. This represented a 14.4% increase in lateral hiring over 2017.

• National firms continue to open new offices in large cities across the U.S., leveraging the firm's practice reputation in its existing offices to market to new clients in the new market.

• Practices at large firms are also "nationalizing," meaning if there is demand for talent in a particular legal service, they will look to staff up across multiple office. In an individual office, the attorneys prioritize service to the local clients, but increasingly attorneys work virtually with others in their practice group across other offices of the firm, as as the work ebbs and flows within each office.

If you're thinking of making a geographic move, there's never been a better time.

When it comes to considering a geographic move, here are some FAQs for BigLaw associates:

How do I find a legal recruiter for my geographic move?

Most legal recruiters are identified through personal referrals. But if you don't know any attorneys in your target market, this might not be possible. Conduct a Google search and take a look at some online legal recruiter directories. Most recruiters are clear on their websites about who they work with and where. (Through Gridline Search + Consulting, for example, I primarily work with larger law firms in the big U.S. legal markets, using recruiter connections and industry knowledge I gained through my time as a career advisor at Harvard Law.)

I like my current firm. I just need to move geographically for personal reasons. Should I just ask for an office transfer?

Maybe. But does that other office have the practice area that you work in? Is the culture of the other office the same as your current one? Do you know anyone in the new office that would be interested in advocating for your office transfer? Will your current team help you make the move or will it be hard for them to let you go? If the answers to these questions present complications, it may be best to look for a new employer in your target market. (I talk about this further in my article "Why Lateral?")

When is the right time to make a geographic move?

As a BigLaw associate, you are most marketable for an associate lateral move with 2-5 years of experience. This is generally true whether you are looking to stay in the same market or make a geographic move.

What if I am not admitted into the state where I plan to move?

Start by taking a look at the bar admission resources provided by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE). If you are a junior associate admitted to a UBE state, you may still be able to port that score to a new UBE state. If you are a senior associate, you may be eligible for "admission by motion" to the new state based on your years of continuous practice in your current state. If something is unclear from a website or written resource, don't rely on word of mouth. Call the state's board of bar examiners directly.

Most firm offices will require that you eventually be admitted into the state where they are located. If you ultimately need to take a new bar exam, sometimes the firm will even give you time off and cover expenses while employed at the new firm (this is more often provide to corporate associates making a lateral move than to litigation associates).

Will the firm fly me out for an interview? Will they pay the expenses?

When interviewing a candidate from another market, most large firms will start with a screening interview via phone, videoconference or with attorneys or staff located in an office closer to you. After this, they will likely require at least one round of in-person interview. Most large law firms will pay for reasonable expenses related to this trip.

Will the new firm pay for my relocation expenses?

In most cases, yes they will. In terms of the exact amount and method, this is something that typically gets negotiated when an offer of employment is made through your recruiter.

My spouse got a new job already, so I need to make the move as soon as possible. How long does the process typically take?

Timing for a geographic move as a lateral associate depends on a lot of factors - your target market, your level of experience, your practice, your current firm, your credentials, etc. It could take a couple weeks to move or it could take several months. You will want to talk with your recruiter about the urgency of your timing and what you can expect. If it sounds like your search could take a long time, you might ask your current employer if it's possible for you to work remotely while you search for a new job in your new market. (Don't just quit your job and then start searching. If your resume indicates this, it might send a negative signal about your candidacy.)

Like the Bay Area, the city of Boston has a legal market where there are more opportunities for BigLaw lawyers than there are candidates. There are at least 150 active associate openings at AmLaw 200 firms in the Boston market (compare that with less than 70 for the Philadelphia legal market, a metropolitan area that is 50% larger than the Boston metro area). Many of these openings are in highly skilled practice areas like private equity, finance, health law and intellectual property. These practices require a certain type of training that can only be found at other BigLaw firms. Therefore, the Boston legal market looks to larger legal markets (such as New York) for talent.

Even if you have never lived in Boston, here are a few reasons to consider the market for your lateral move:

Center for finance, life sciences and technology. New York revolves around financial services; San Francisco, around technology. Boston has a growing mix of both industries, in addition to being a true center for health care and life sciences work. This produces a wealth of opportunities in terms of clients and, by extension, in-house possibilities.

Different work/life-style. Unlike Manhattan or downtown San Francisco, Boston is not a 24-hour city. Restaurants and shops close in the Financial District (where the bulk of law firms are located). This does not mean that lawyers never work late in Boston. They definitely do. But you're much more likely to find people that commute in before 9am and then do their work from home in the late evening hours, as opposed to Manhattan where physically staying in the office past 8pm is not uncommon.

Interesting, affordable places to live. Much is said about Boston's lack of housing affordability, and this is certainly true when it comes to rental units. There aren't enough of them. But Boston is a town where professionals tend to own. My husband and I live in a house in the South Shore beach town of Hull, which is just a 25 minute ferry ride into Boston's Financial District. For the cost of our home, you could maybe buy a small 1-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn Heights (and that would mean a 1 hour+ commute to Midtown). There are lots of towns and neighborhoods around Boston like mine, and keep in mind that you're likely to have a New York market salary to spend on your place to live.

Ski in the winter; beach in the summer. From the center of Boston, it takes less than two hours to get to the beaches of Cape Cod, the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire and more. Boston is a place where it does not take too long to "get away." In addition, it is city rich with history, museums and a theater scene. (I don't go to any "sports games," but you know the town's reputation when it comes to that.)

I've written before about changing markets as a corporate associate. This article looks at the broader movement of law firm associates that have changed geographic markets and moved to new law firms, looking at data from 2018. Here are some findings regarding some of the key "destination markets" for associates last year:

Lateral data copyright 2018 Firm Prospects, LLC. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Not for redistribution. Graphic by DuelingData.

• The Bay Area and New York lead the pack for destination markets, driven by high corporate needs. Attorneys that do some type of transactional work flock to the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City markets. Even though the Bay Area is generally a smaller legal market than NY and DC, the needs for corporate attorneys to service tech companies, their buyers, their targets and their financiers. This need will likely grow in 2019 (see here).

• DC transfers were diverse in original location and practice. The DC market had 160 transfer associates in 2018, which excludes the number of associates coming to firms from judicial clerkships (significant in the DC market). These associates came from all over the country. This can partly be attributed to the fact that the DC bar has a much easier admission process for laterals than, for example, California. Practice areas were similarly diverse with DC drawing in associates to fill corporate, litigation, real estate, tax and IP needs, amongst others.

• Boston's lateral associate needs were significant compared to the city size. Boston attracted about 100 new associates to the market last year. This is the 6th largest transfer destination market, even though the metropolitan area is only the 10th largest in the country. New firms along with active financial services and life sciences industries keep the needs for associate talent high, especially for corporate practice.

Expect the trend of lateral associate geographic movement to increase in numbers over the next few years for a few reasons:

1. Large firms will continue move into new markets (see Boston) and partner groups will continue to move as firms compete for books of business.

2. Some practice areas like tech transactions, real estate and data privacy are in such high-demand for trained talent that firm offices will have to look out of their geographic areas to find the talent.

3. The liberalization of state bar admission via adoption of the UBE will make it easier and easier for associates to make themselves marketable to a new firm in a new market.

If you’re a corporate or transactional associate that feels stuck, maybe you need a change - not just of firm, but of location.

Different legal markets in the U.S. can offer different opportunities for corporate associates. Here are some examples on what different legal markets have to offer corporate associates looking to make a lateral move:

• The Bay Area - for getting in-house at a tech company. Obviously the Bay Area is most known for its ties to the technology industry, and it’s what drives legal services as well. When I was a career advisor at Harvard Law, one of the most popular long-term career goals was: “I’d like to be in-house at a start up or established tech company like Google.” These types of positions are competitive and increasingly require more and more firm experience. But the best way to lay the ground work is to do company-side work at the firms that are in the tech companies’ backyard.

• Boston - for wealth and investment management. At large law firms across the country, lots of private client, wealth and investment management practices have moved to smaller and midsize firms. In “old money” Boston, these practices still exist at some of the most prominent firms in the market. The practices are great for corporate attorneys that like to work directly with clients and enjoy relationship-building.

• New York - for being a Big Deal Lawyer. There’s no other legal market in the world that will provide the opportunity to work on big capital markets and M&A deals like New York City. If you enjoy the rush that comes with quick turnarounds and same-day pricing decisions (as well as seeing your name attached to big deal announcements) then New York is the place to be or stay.

• Chicago and Atlanta - for working with particular Fortune 500 companies. There are some major Fortune 500 companies based in the Midwest and Southeast. Some companies started there, while others strategically chose their headquarters in these regions for cost and/or tax reasons. When they need help on a major financing, purchase or sale, they look to those big firms in the nearest cities with big legal markets: Chicago and Atlanta.

• DC - for being everyone’s financial regulatory expert. If you are a corporate associate that enjoys getting in the weeds and staying up-to-date on federal securities law and other financial regulations, you may need to be a lawyer in the D.C. market. The demand for specialized financial regulatory experts is always high. And lots of firms looks for corporate associates trained on “deal work” who are now looking for a tighter focus.

Your next move as an associate should be one that furthers your long-term career goals.

Ultimately, a physical move may provide you with the best opportunity for long-term career satisfaction as an attorney.