how an attorney becomes a legal recruiter

How to Become an Attorney Recruiter The primary qualifications for becoming an attorney recruiter are a bachelor's degree in human resources, business, or a similar field and some experience with the legal industry. Many attorney recruiters complete law school and practice for several years before moving to a recruiting role.

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When do recruiters get paid when hiring a lawyer?

When a legal employer hires a candidate that was first introduced by a recruiter, the search firm is entitled to a fee (generally 25% of the first-year salary). This fee is usually paid 30 days after the candidate begins working for the firm.

What is legal recruiting and how does it work?

Legal recruiting is a niche business that caters to a relatively small subset of the legal community. Like any business, legal recruiting is constrained by the business realities of the marketplace. Smaller firms are often unwilling or unable to pay search fees.

Do law firms use search firms to recruit entry-level talent?

Law firms do not use outside search firms to recruit entry-level talent. Similarly, law firms are generally unwilling to pay search firms for candidates that they can reach through conventional advertising.

What are the challenges of legal recruiting?

Like any business, legal recruiting is constrained by the business realities of the marketplace. Smaller firms are often unwilling or unable to pay search fees. Firms that are open to paying search fees are generally looking for a specific demographic of candidates.

What Does an Attorney Recruiter Do?

Attorney recruiters, sometimes known as legal recruiters, identify qualified lawyers for specific positions at law firms and refer them for employment. In this role, you search databases of attorneys and legal job boards to determine which candidates would be a good match for the current opening at your client's firm.

How to Become an Attorney Recruiter

The primary qualifications for becoming an attorney recruiter are a bachelor's degree in human resources, business, or a similar field and some experience with the legal industry. Many attorney recruiters complete law school and practice for several years before moving to a recruiting role.

What is legal recruiter?

Being a legal recruiter allows you to control your own trajectory while maintaining job security. As a legal recruiter you have the opportunity to help others. If these sound appealing to you, keep reading to find out what other qualities are necessary to be a successful legal recruiter.

Why is legal recruiting important?

That is why legal recruiting is the perfect profession for me. A good legal recruiter must be interested in the personalities of people, in their psychology and more. This is incredibly important to a legal recruiter.

What is the most important part of legal recruiting?

Training is one of the most important components of legal recruiting. In order to stay effective, every legal recruiter needs to be trained consistently. Some legal recruiting firms do not train, some train when you start and some are always training . At BCG Attorney Search we are always training our recruiters.

What is a recruiting firm?

A recruiting firm is as strong as the brand it represents. Some legal recruiting firms have no brands and others have very strong brands. When you are working with a legal recruiting firm with a strong brand behind you then it makes things easier for you.

What happens if you are rejected after a cold call?

When you are rejected after a cold call, or when your candidate gets rejected and is upset, it is all on your shoulders. To be a good legal recruiter you need to position yourself for rejection and be used to being rejected daily. Your ego should have nothing to do with anything and it should never be about you.

Do legal recruiting companies use databases?

Some legal recruiting companies do not even use a database, others use commercial databases for recruiting that are not customized for the legal market, others have customized databases that are not updated frequently, and other legal recruiting companies have sophisticated databases that are updated frequently.

Do law firms work with recruiters?

Law firms work with legal recruiters who support them. Some legal recruiting firms are opportunistic and work with law firms occasionally and only if they have a strong candidate. Other legal recruiting firms are “partners” with law firms and have long-standing, ongoing relationships with them.

What Is a Legal Recruiter?

A legal recruiter is a human resources professional who helps law firms find qualified employees. As a legal recruiter, your job is to attract talented lawyers and other legal staff, such as paralegals, legal assistants, and mediators or arbitrators, to fill employment vacancies.

How to Become a Legal Recruiter

To pursue a career as a legal recruiter, you typically need a bachelor’s degree in human resource management with additional coursework in law, as well as at least two to four years of recruiting experience. Some employers require additional qualifications, such as a law degree.

How many steps do recruiters take to get a law firm?

Recruiters generally follow ten steps to get you working for a major law firm. The first step lets the recruiter evaluate if you have the qualifications to be placed with a major law firm. Assuming you are qualified, you will move on to the next three steps.

Why do recruiters want to communicate with you?

The recruiter also has the firm's interests to protect, so they want to communicate with you so that they can be sure that a certain law firm is a good match for your personality, talent, experience, and qualifications.

How to switch firms?

The best way to switch firms is to use a recruiter and then use any contacts at those firms later down the line. The recruiter will be able to provide the most professional introduction to the firm, whereas you don't know how your contact is introducing you to the firm or the reputation of that contact at the firm.

Do law firms use recruiters?

Most law firms use recruiters for positions that require some experience, so the more experience you have, the more time it may take a recruiter to find you the right position. You can also approach some firms on your own while using a recruiter for other firms. TOP. Working with More than One Recruiter.

Do you have to stay with one legal recruiter?

Rules of Engagement: Tips for Working with a Legal Recruiter. You never have to stay with one recruiter. If they don’t work for you then move on to one that will.

Do legal recruiters work with everyone?

Choosing the Best Legal Recruiter. Legal recruiters are able to identify the best position for their candidates; however, the best recruiters do not work with everyone. Law students do not make good candidates for recruiters because law firms are only looking for stars, not first year associates.

Can a recruiter help every lawyer?

Finding a job yourself is possible, since a recruiter cannot help every lawyer. First year associates generally find a job while still in school and do not have the preferred qualifications to make them strong applicants for the type of positions that recruiters work to fill.

What is legal recruiting?

Legal recruiting is a niche business that caters to a relatively small subset of the legal community. Like any business, legal recruiting is constrained by the business realities of the marketplace. Smaller firms are often unwilling or unable to pay search fees. Firms that are open to paying search fees are generally looking for a specific ...

Why do law firms need recruiters?

If you are pursuing other law firm opportunities, the real value of working with a recruiter is that you have someone who can help you sort through your options. In addition, a good recruiter can help you to uncover information that may be important in your decision-making process. A good recruiter can be your agent and help you to communicate effectively with a prospective employer regarding salary, benefits, and terms of employment. For this reason, it makes more sense to work with one recruiter if you are pursuing a lateral move to another firm.

How are recruiting fees paid?

While good recruiters build close relationships with their candidates, recruiting fees are paid by the employer. When a legal employer hires a candidate that was first introduced by a recruiter, the search firm is entitled to a fee (generally 25% of the first-year salary). This fee is usually paid 30 days after the candidate begins working for ...

How to find a recruiter you can trust?

Finding a recruiter you can trust is similar to finding any service provider. Talk to your friends and see if they know a reputable recruiter in your area. Ask the career services office at your law school if they know anybody. If you identify some names, Google the individuals and see if you can find biographies. Have they written any articles on career-related issues? Is there information about them on a website which tells you more about their recruiting philosophy? Do they follow any ethical guidelines?

How to approach a law firm?

There are some instances where it might make sense to approach a firm through a personal contact. If a partner at the firm has firsthand knowledge of your capabilities, then it may make sense to make a direct approach through that partner. On the other hand, if your contact only knows you in a social context (e.g., you are friendly with her son) or if the contact is simply a law school classmate who knows nothing about the quality of your work, then you may want to have a recruiter make the initial introduction and have your contact put in a good word for you only after the introduction has been made.

What does "stellar" mean in law?

In the eyes of the client firm, "stellar" generally means an associate with two to six years of experience at a major firm (which usually means strong academics) or a partner with substantial portable billings (i.e., in the hundreds of thousands).

How to get a job if you are unemployed?

If you are unemployed and have the time, try to do work on a contract basis as a way of getting your foot in the door. Mention your availability to do contract work when you are out networking. Try to avoid contract work which is unlikely to lead to permanent employment.

What is legal recruiter?

A legal recruiter is very similar to a partner at an Am Law 200 law firm in terms of compensation and day-to-day routine, but without the billable hour. Both get paid based on their book of business (i.e., eat what you kill) and maintain a stable of relationships that help them bring in business.

Is law an inflexible industry?

2. Flexibility: Law is undoubtedly a bit of an inflexible industry. With rates easily reaching double the minimum wage, per minute, every minute of every day counts. The more hours you work, the more productive you are for the firm.

Do you get paid for legal recruiting?

In legal recruiting, you are not paid strictly for putting in the hours. You are paid for performance. The better you perform, the higher the ceiling. The point is, legal recruiting scales with effort; if you are a high performer, you can expect compensation comparable to a partner. 2.

Is recruiting easy?

It sounds pretty easy, right? Not really. Recruiting is not the easy money that it might sound like. You have to work hard every day to foster relationships and keep up with hundreds of people all the time. If you don’t like people, you won’t like recruiting. You also could go several months without a single placement and then have four in the span of one week (happened to my colleague recently). The good news is, our team is hiring. If you think you sound like a good fit for legal recruiting, feel free to send us your résumé at [email protected].

What happens if an attorney recruiter is not hard working?

If you have a recruiter who is not hard-working or aggressive, you as an attorney could be missing out on opportunities in larger and more prestigious firms.

What happens when you work with a recruiter?

When you work with a recruiter, you may end up only speaking with places that do not fit what you are interested in. In doing so, many attorneys (falsely) conclude that if this is all that is out there then they will go in-house, or quit the practice of law, or take some type of other direction with their careers.

What does a recruiter do?

A recruiter understands how to target individual attorneys for positions and not much else. In areas like New York City, when a legal recruiter gets a “new job” from a law firm the recruiter will start dialing, emailing, advertising and doing what he or she can to fill the position.

How many calls does a recruiter make a day?

In many legal recruiting firms, "job orders" are handed out like prizes. In return for receiving a "job order," a recruiter is expected to make 60 to 100 calls per day searching for resumes.

What is recruiting in business?

A recruiter typically, and historically, has “recruited” for one or a few jobs—generally a job or jobs that have been around forever and that everyone in the business already knows about. A recruiter does not understand the market.

Why do recruiters not get traction?

If you work with a recruiter—regardless of your qualifications—you may get frustrated and reach the (mistaken) conclusion that you are not marketable because your search is getting nowhere. This happens all the time. People working with recruiters do not get “traction” in their job searches and give up being attorneys.

Do recruiters know what they are doing?

Recruiters are not at all equipped to advise you, to get you other jobs or to “place” you in a truly suitable position. They will try if you ask, but in most cases, they do not know what they are doing. In the old days, many recruiters would simply fax your resume to every large law firm in the city.