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28 September 2026 (Washington, DC) - An increasingly competitive marketplace for legal talent and attorneys moving their platforms frequently, recruiters say firms seem to be taking a more active role in monitoring their roster, relying more increasingly on digital monitoring to try and detect whether any of their attorneys are thinking about a possible lateral move.
Louis Alpert, director of the Washington, D.C.,-based legal search consultancy Alpert Associates, spoke of an attorney friend whose managers were tipped off about his interest in moving by a prospective employer visiting that attorney's firm biography page a handful of times.
The attorney scheduled a day off for a round of in-person meetings with their possible new firm, following which management called him in for a meeting, He declined to name the firms or the attorney involved. He said:
Basically the firm came in and they were like, 'Are you interviewing with another firm?' It got pretty ugly. They were pretty much brought in and yelled at. 'How could you do this? How could you betray us?' I mean, that's not really all that new in our world.
It wasn't clear at first how the firm found out about the attorney's possible lateral move. However, after the attorney did move to a new firm, they learned from an inside source at their old firm that management had used IP address data to track the number of views to that attorney's bio and where those views were coming from:
The way they did it was by checking software that shows the IP address of people visiting their website.
Amid increasingly aggressive competition between firms for talent, he said he's seen laterals move firms every two years, "which never used to be the case". He said:
And so they are fighting tooth and nail to keep people. You're seeing more counteroffers than ever, I'm sure more monitoring, more attempts to retain.
Gary Miles, the president and CEO of Miles Partner Placement, said firms are "definitely trying anything they can to retain" their attorneys, whether that's impeding recruiters from talking to their talent through IP address blocking or otherwise. Firms are simultaneously focused on keeping a close eye on internal operations and not losing their talent to other firms. He noted:
I think that's all led us to a place where Big Brother is definitely watching, as much as they possibly can. Although IP address tracking and other forms of monitoring isn't new. All law firms, all companies have been doing it for years: emails, phone logs, etc.
Miles has worked in legal recruiting since 2007. Firms use the information to block incoming emails from recruiters and even incoming calls to work phones - especially as recruiters have started using artificial intelligence-backed robotic calls to solicit possible candidates.
He noted a lot of law firms require website visitors to accept cookies - small text files that track who is accessing their sites. Firms can then take that data, analyze it, and use it to piece together if lawyers are being looked at by recruiters or leaders at other firms, he said:
There have been instances where that internal IP address data has even been used to completely shut out recruiters from accessing certain landing pages on a firm's website.
There have been times where we've been - one of us, or two of our recruiters - have been blocked, like we can't get into the website. The website finds a way to keep you out.
Major Lindsey & Africa managing director Keith Wetmore, who spent over 17 years in leadership positions at Morrison Foerster LLP, said his old firm had the ability to access internal emails. He's also heard of law firms that monitor specific web traffic to their site:
For that reason, because there's nothing more personal than a personal job search, the first advice out of a recruiter at Major Lindsey would be, 'If you want to talk, this conversation belongs on your personal email or your personal text network'.
He said he didn't recall MoFo tracing IP address data during his time with the firm, but he did remember other internal alarms that raise flags about attorneys potentially making a lateral move:
If somebody asked for their capital statement, the chief financial officer would call me.
Amy Savage, a partner at legal search firm Garrison, said recruiters always "have to think about the digital trail that a search leaves behind" when reaching out to potential laterals:
Whether it be making a phone call instead of sending an email. Sending an email to personal, instead of to work. And now there's this new category that people are more aware of: IP address activity.
So it's not just a matter of worrying about a backdoor reference check, or someone disclosing your search, it's that digital footprint that matters as well.
While Savage and fellow Garrison partner Dan Binstock both said they haven't heard of specific instances of tracking attorneys via IP address data to uncover any plans to switch firms, Binstock added firms are going to take extra precautions, "especially at the high level". He noted "it's a natural conclusion given the heightened level of activity and poaching amongst more and more firms".
In order to avoid detection, recruiters largely send PDF versions of attorneys' online bios to prospective employers. For the past 15 years, Binstock said he's never sent a website link of an attorney's bio.
Recruiters are vigilant to protect any information they share about potential laterals, largely sending PDF versions of attorneys' online biographies to prospective employers. For the past 15 years, Binstock said he's never sent a website link of an attorney's bio.
He said even Microsoft Word documents can give too much information away to outside sources if recruiters aren't careful:
Materials should always be sent over as a PDF rather than a Word document because Word documents have so much metadata. Clicking on them can show who the original author was. It shows the number of edits, when the edits were made.
In addition to tracking IP addresses, Binstock said firms may also monitor downloads from their intranet for any eyebrow-raising activity:
So firms will look at, if someone's downloading their partnership agreement, is that a sign that they're evaluating what their obligations will be upon departure?
However, recruiters cautioned, aggressive tactics to prevent headhunting could backfire. One noted;
"I think firms need to be very careful about jumping to conclusions. Just because someone's bio is being viewed many times, more than historically they've been viewed, does not mean they are looking for a new job.
Reece Legal Search's principal Carl D. Reece, who's been recruiting since 2000, said using "Gestapo tactics and spying" on attorneys and recruiters' internet activity "doesn't generate good faith". Reece said:
I don't know that there's much upside for law firms unless they're trying to hold onto really serious rainmakers. That would be the upside, trying to put a tracker on someone's ankle as a partner because he has a $10 million, $15 million book. Either he's going to want to be there for the right reasons or not.
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