Promoting internal mobility in a changing legal environment

Internal mobility in legal organizations: navigating change

The legal sector is under pressure. Artificial intelligence is changing the way legal work is done, regulations are increasing in complexity, and the labor market remains tight. At the same time, we see a remarkable paradox: while organizations are crying out for talent, employees are increasingly staying put in their current positions. For HR professionals in legal organizations, this is a dual challenge. On the one hand, you need to attract new talent in a tight market, while on the other hand, you risk not optimally utilizing your existing employees. Internal mobility offers a solution to both issues, but only if you create the right conditions.

What internal mobility really means

Internal mobility goes beyond an occasional job change. It’s the degree to which employees within your organization can move between roles, departments, or specializations. Think of a legal assistant who grows into a lawyer, a labor law specialist who switched to corporate law, or a senior attorney who takes on a role in knowledge management. The difference between a legal assistant and a lawyer illustrates this well. A legal assistant often supports with administrative and preparatory work, while a lawyer independently conducts legal analyses and provides advice. That step from one to the other is a classic example of vertical internal mobility, but it can also be horizontal: a lawyer who switched from litigation to contract law. You measure the value of internal mobility through concrete indicators. The percentage of internal vacancies filled by existing employees is the most direct measure. Additionally, you look at the average time employees remain in the same role, the number of internal transfers per year, and the retention rate of employees who have grown internally versus those who remained in the same position.

The paradox of the tight labor market

Research shows a striking pattern: in a tight labor market, mobility actually decreases. Employees who are well-positioned are less easily tempted by another offer. Senior attorneys in particular show increasing loyalty to their employer. This sounds positive, but has a downside. This apparent loyalty often masks a lack of dynamism. Employees don’t necessarily stay because they’re so happy, but because switching feels risky in uncertain times. Meanwhile, development needs remain unaddressed, stagnation occurs in teams, and you miss opportunities to optimally deploy talent. For legal organizations, this means you cannot rely on natural turnover. You must actively create a culture in which internal movement is stimulated, even when people seem satisfied at first glance.

From retention to development: the cultural shift

The biggest barrier to internal mobility is often cultural. In many legal organizations, there’s still an implicit expectation that you continue doing what you were hired for. Managers see employees as “their” people and feel threatened when someone shows interest in another department. This mentality must fundamentally change. Successful organizations make internal mobility an explicit part of their culture and performance reviews. Employees must feel free to discuss growth ambitions without fear that this will harm their current position. This requires a leadership style that places development above ownership. Managers are not judged on how many people they retain, but on how many people they help grow, even if that means they move to another department. Some organizations go so far as to reward managers for facilitating internal transfers.

Transparency as foundation

Internal mobility can only flourish if employees know what opportunities exist. Yet many legal organizations publish vacancies externally first, or only through informal channels that not everyone has access to. Create an internal vacancy platform where all open positions are visible before they are published externally. Give employees a head start of at least one week to apply. Even better: also make future developments and growth paths transparent, so people know where they can grow to. Transparency goes beyond vacancies. Also share what competencies are needed for different roles, what development paths are possible, and who has recently made what internal moves. This makes career development concrete and achievable instead of abstract and unattainable.

Employability as shared responsibility

The best internal mobility emerges when employees take control of their own development. This requires a mindset shift: from “my employer determines my career” to “I steer my own development, with support from my employer”. Encourage employees to regularly reflect on their development goals. What skills do they want to build? What experience is still missing? Where do their interests lie? This reflection should systematically recur in development conversations, separate from performance reviews. At the same time, the organization must facilitate. Offer learning budgets that employees can deploy themselves, create opportunities for job shadowing or temporary projects in other departments, and provide mentorship programs that help people explore their ambitions.

Skills-based thinking instead of job thinking

The legal sector is traditionally strongly organized around fixed positions and specializations. This can be limiting for internal mobility. A labor law specialist interested in privacy legislation often has to start completely over, while many underlying skills overlap. More and more organizations are switching to a skills-based approach. Instead of looking at someone’s job title, you look at what competencies someone has and which still need to be developed. This makes lateral movements more accessible and helps employees see patterns in seemingly different roles. For legal organizations, this means you must identify and document skills. What analytical skills are needed for different areas of law? What communication competencies are universal? What technical knowledge is transferable? With these insights, you can set up targeted development programs that facilitate internal transfers.

The role of data and insights

Effective internal mobility requires that you understand what’s happening in your organization. Where are talents that are underutilized? Which departments have high turnover? Where do bottlenecks in advancement occur? Employee surveys quickly give you insight into development needs and ambitions. By regularly gauging how employees feel about their development opportunities, you get early signals before people actually leave. You can also specifically ask about interest in other roles or departments. Combine these qualitative insights with hard data about actual movements, retention figures per team, and statistics about time in the same role. This gives you a complete picture of where internal mobility is going well and where interventions are needed.

Practical implementation: where do you start? start with a pilot in one department or team.
choose a manager who is open to the concept and experiment with transparent vacancy publication, development conversations focused on mobility, and opportunities for job rotation. measure the results and learn from what works and what doesn’t. then create a formal internal mobility program. establish clear guidelines about how internal applications work, what rights employees have, and how managers are supported in letting go of talents. ensure this program is visible and regularly communicated. train your managers in conducting development-oriented conversations. many leaders want to, but don’t know how to initiate the conversation about ambitions that lie outside their team. give them concrete tools and example conversations.

The business case: what does it deliver? organizations with strong internal mobility see measurable results. retention figures rise because employees find new challenges without leaving. time to productivity in new roles is shorter because people already know the organization. recruitment costs decrease because fewer external hires are needed. but the greatest value lies in flexibility and agility. in a sector that’s changing rapidly due to technology and new regulations, organizations with internally mobile employees are better able to anticipate. you can build new areas of expertise faster and reconfigure teams around new priorities. additionally, internal mobility increases your attractiveness as an employer. talents increasingly choose organizations that facilitate development over those with the highest starting salary. A strong internal mobility program becomes a recruitment argument.

From strategy to daily practice

Internal mobility is not an HR program that you launch and then forget. It must be woven into your daily practice, from onboarding to exit interviews. New employees must hear from day one that development and internal movement are encouraged. Make internal mobility visible by celebrating successes. Share stories of employees who have made interesting internal moves. Show what development paths are possible. This normalizes internal movement and inspires others to explore their own ambitions. Keep measuring and adjusting. Use feedback from employees to understand where barriers continue to exist. Analyze patterns in who does and doesn’t use internal opportunities. Ensure that internal mobility is accessible to everyone, not just those who happen to have the right contacts. The legal sector is changing faster than ever. Organizations that can optimally deploy and develop their existing talent have a fundamental advantage. Internal mobility is no longer a nice-to-have, but a strategic necessity for organizations that want to remain future-proof.