Assistant Director: Lateral Partner Integration

Assistant Director:
Lateral Partner Integration

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world’s major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.

We are a collegial, collaborative firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realize their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm’s client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.

If you enjoy working with team members whose defining characteristics are exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, you may be the person we are seeking to join our Business Development and Marketing department in our Chicago or New York office, as an Assistant Director:
Lateral Partner Integration.

The Assistant Director of Lateral Partner Integration is responsible, on a global basis, for ensuring the successful onboarding, transition, and performance ramp-up of lateral partners joining the firm. This individual will act as the strategic point of contact for new partners, coordinating all aspects of integration — cultural, operational, client-facing, and business development — with a focus on accelerating revenue generation and deepening connectivity across the firm.

This role reports to the Senior Director of Commercial Strategy & Growth and serves as the single point of accountability for the integration lifecycle through month 12. This role is critical to ensuring the firm’s investment in lateral hiring results in productivity, client retention, and long-term partnership success.

• Pre-Arrival Preparation
  • Build and manage the pre-start integration process to reduce uncertainty and ensure readiness.
  • Coordinate early introductions with key administrative contacts (IT, HR, Legal Resources, billing, records, talent, etc.).
  • Develop and circulate pre-arrival integration checklists and follow-up communications.
  • Coordinate LPQ intake, conflicts clearance, and ethical walls, ensuring matter opening and client communications align with applicable rules.
• Onboarding & First 48-Hour Experience
  • Working with the Lateral Partner Hiring team and key business services professionals throughout our network, ensure a structured onboarding schedule that includes key orientations and relationship-building.
  • Prevent “bystander effect” by clearly assigning responsibilities and monitoring follow-through.
  • Balance onboarding tasks with client demands by prioritizing IT access, communications, and seamless client transition.
  • Own Day 0/Day 2 access SLAs (SSO, DMS, time/billing, CRM, collaboration tools) and confirm device provisioning and security compliance.
  • Publish a 30/60/90/180/365 integration plan with KPIs tied to the hiring business case, reviewed monthly with sponsors.
• Primary Point Of Contact
  • Develop protocols for defining primary point of contact depending on whether the hire is a standard practice hire or a member of the Accelerated Growth or Priority Product areas.
  • Serve as the lateral partner’s main internal contact (“their person”) for all questions, issues, and guidance.
  • Act as liaison to business services stakeholders, enabling partners to stay client-focused.
  • Maintain high-touch, responsive communication through the full integration period, including the lateral partner and sponsoring partners.
• Ongoing Check-ins & Support
  • Conduct regular integration check-ins (first week, first month, quarterly, etc.).
  • Proactively identify gaps in onboarding, unmet needs, or emerging risks.
  • Provide tools such as business plan templates and key upcoming deadlines.
• Business & Client Synergy Mapping
  • Collaborate with business development, Lateral Partner Sponsor Partner(s), and practice leadership to identify client overlaps and…