Legal Marketing & PR

8 FAQ About Legal Recruiters - Scoring Right Law Job, The Right Way

By lawjobspipeline

An interesting article from CounselToCounsel blogger and recruiter Stephen Seckler, whose MD of BCG Attorney Search’s Boston office and previously built up his own law consulting firm, Secker Legal Consulting.  His article, provides some FAQs on legal recruiting, outlining 8 tips about legal recruiters.

In summary:   1. Unreturned phone calls - a mystery why calls aren’t returned, but let’s put it down to not enough hours in the day.  Not good enough, we know, but here it is.

2. Paying recruiters.  The payment comes from the law firm (employer) and is usually 25% of the first year’s salary, which with salary hikes in recent times can be considerable.

3. What do lawyers who lack big firm experience do?  “Find alumni of your law school who are willing to speak with you for a few minutes. Start showing up at bar association meetings for your practice area and make a point of talking to a few new people each time you show up. Ask college and law school classmates to introduce you to lawyers who have practices that interest you.”

4. What recruiters work for inhouse placements?   “. . if you are thinking about an in-house move, it is in your best interest to do a search which involves working with recruiters, keeping up with all the job boards, and networking aggressively.”

5. Find a reputable recruiter.  Ask around, Google them, use your contacts.

6. Should you make direct contact with firms?  It depends on your relationship with the firm (if any).  If you know people who work there then it may be worth a try, but remember social contacts are different from business relationships.

7. Wouldn’t firms wish to avoid paying recruiters by hiring directly?  They can make their money back fast with the fees charged.

8. What about recruiters who send out resumes without consent?  They’re unscrupulous and should be avoided.  ”Unfortunately, resumes do have a shelf life of at least six months. No law firm wants to risk being responsible for two search fees. So once your resume has been presented to the firm by any source, the law firm will not work with another search firm for at least this amount of time.” 

Full post as published by Lawyer Marketing Blog on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).