In this competitive market, where talent is getting increasingly difficult to find, and cutting down on costs is still the norm, companies that try to recruit legal talent on their own generally fail to find, attract, and retain the best candidates. Worse yet, they also tend to overspend in their efforts to do so. Companies using specialized legal recruiting firms to recruit the best attorneys tend to have a better track record of success, saving companies both time and money, while delivering the best legal talent available.
The importance of quality legal recruiters for companies seeking attorney recruiting and attorney headhunting cannot be overstated. First, most companies’ concerns when hiring whether the attorney candidate will be able to perform the tasks required and deliver results. To that end, a specialized legal recruiting firm that focuses on in-house attorney placement has the ability plumb the depths of a candidate’s work history and skill set. Not only do they know how to read between the lines, but they may already know the candidate as well. They can tell you if that attorney performed well at his previous position, and provide you with more information that an internal recruiter or one that does not specialize in legal recruiting. Success in recruiting is a lot about what you know and who you know, and using specialized legal recruiting firms can make a big difference in attracting and recruiting the best attorneys.
Specialized legal recruiting firms can also save companies time and money. Unless locating legal talent is your company’s core competency, you should not do it alone. Just because LinkedIn makes some candidates more accessible to you does not mean you will be better served to do searches for talent without a recruiter. Why? Because specialized legal recruiting firms have a lot more tools, knowledge and firepower than you do. You have LinkedIn? They have LinkedIn Pro Recruiter, which cost a great deal per year, but gives them access to everyone. If you use your LinkedIn service, you are missing out. We all know that you are not likely to find the best candidate for your opening, as some candidates are “passive or not active” job seekers. Specialized legal recruiting firms also have the contacts of candidates that you may not even know about – like pocket listings in real estate. Specialized legal recruiting firms have the tools, subscriptions, a peer group for support and a network that is better than yours. A simple question: Is your manager or internal recruiter capable of calling into the competitor’s company to get their best talent out for an interview? If they do that, will the competitor know what you are up to within minutes?
The bottom line? Specialized legal recruiting firms produce results. What other professional group do you work with that will work on a contingent basis? What other professional group guarantees their work even though they have little control over what you do to ensure the success of their placement? Most candidates leave because they don’t like the company or the direct supervisor and the recruiter has little to no control over those two contributing factors, yet specialized legal recruiting firms guarantee their work. If you are 100% confident as a company that the best attorney candidate for your opening is on LinkedIn, and that your internal managers or recruiters can attract and identify those attorney candidates, will never scare off good candidates, and will not increase the chance of a turndown by the best available legal talent…then you are running a legal recruiting company, not a business focused on whatever it is you do as an employer. If you’re not, you should consider using specialized legal recruiting firms to recruit the best attorneys for your company.
If you are interested working with a specialized legal recruiting firm, contact us today to start your search!
Published: 08.03.15 PDF Version