Category: Legal

In today’s highly competitive legal recruiting market, law firms have challenges finding and attracting talent to join their firm. From law firm associates to senior partners and whole practice groups to new office branches, efficient legal recruiting can make the difference between simply competing and consistently winning.
Summary
Are you looking to hire an attorney recruiter?
These are the characteristics you will want to look for:

• Intuitive, self-starter, with great people skills
• Entrepreneurial skills
• Diligence & great work ethic
• Knowledge & understanding of the law profession
• Likeability & impressive persuasion skills
• High level of concentration
• Resilience

According to the American Bar Association, there were about 1.336 Million lawyers in the graduating class of 2017. Statistics also show about a 1.6% increase in the number of attorneys in comparison to 2016.
Hiring an Attorney Recruiter has become more of a necessity rather than a choice for any law firm looking to build their team with the right talent

Characteristics of a Great Attorney Recruiter

1.Intuitive, Self-Starter, with Great people skills

Often people ignore the power of intuition in recruiting. We have found that intuition is that “hunch” that helps us make the right choice for our clients. In many cases, clients are clear about the tangible qualifications the attorney needs to possess, however, they often leave out other requirements, such as compatibility with the organizational culture; or the need to work with someone who fits in (in this case it defines the flow of the firm).
Being a good Attorney Recruiter requires the ability to see the bigger picture and sometimes introduce new ideas that neither the firm nor the job seeker has previously considered.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Recruiting attorneys can seem like a high-profile opportunity, but it is not as easy as it appears. Good attorneys are sought by many different firms. It takes long hours of research and phone calls.
Recruiters live by the motto “your profit is from the business you bring”, which means their compensation is based on performance rather than just the hours they put in. Based on all of this, becoming an attorney recruiter is as entrepreneurial as it can get, which means that very few people will make it as Attorney recruiters.

Diligence & Great Work Ethic

In the legal profession, diligence and great work ethics are some of the most important characteristics to possess as a lawyer or a recruiter.
There is a misconception that attorney recruiters have to put in fewer hours compared to an actual lawyer working in a firm. This is a false impression. It can take hundreds to even thousands of hours to find and engage with the right attorney candidate for a client.
Finally, attorney recruiting requires a high-level of work ethic; clients (firms) are depending on the recruiter to make the right choices for them. We always walk away from a deal that could hurt our client. We advise our clients against hiring our candidate if sometime just seems “off”. At the same time, firms expect the recruiter to become flexible enough to deliver the desired results within the right time frame. As you can imagine, this can be stressful.

Knowledge & Understanding of the Legal Profession

While it is possible to become a legal recruiter without going to law school, there are some exceptions where attorneys become recruiters.
It is necessary to have a working knowledge of the legal profession in order to understand the candidates who are recruiting. One can assess a recruiter’s knowledge with a general conversation.
Being a great recruiter takes passion, drive, and the ability to make the right matches.

5Likeability & Impressive persuasion Skills

Likeability is the means by which an attorney recruiter gets in the door in the first place. Likeability leads an attorney recruiter to gain the trust of a firm or client; as well as to get the best attorneys to take our call.
Often, firms are looking at more than one attorney recruiter, so persuasion and history of success helps the recruiter stand out.

High levels of Concentration

Attorney recruitment is a process that takes patience, trust, and time.
There are often frustrating days, but the commitment to find the client the right person helps tremendously.
Higher levels of commitment and concentration allow the attorney recruiter to notice opportunities or problems that the firm may not notice.

Bouncing back from adversity & resilience

Recruiting can be a bumpy but rewarding ride. It takes the ability to bounce back from adversity which some refer to as resilience. Recruiters are selling an opportunity. As with any sales role, the recruiter hears 100 no’s to every 1 yes.

It’s vital to ensure you find an attorney recruiter who possess these qualities. At Talent Matched, we pride ourselves on our team, process of passive recruiting, and the fast that we always try to do the right thing for all parties involved. To learn our passive recruiting secrets, visit us at http://talentmatched.co/top-3-secrets-to-hiring-the-best-talent.

School is over for the summer, and the class of 2018 is on the hunt for internships and jobs. If you are recruiting for new talent, this might be a good time for you to re-think your web presence and clean up (or start!) the blog that you keep meaning to pay attention to. To help you out, here are some of the highlights from the ABA Journal’s Web 100 list for 2017—it’s a list of 50 blogs, 25 law podcasts and 25 tweeters selected by the Journal staffers, and we’ve highlighted some of our favorites for your reading, listening, and tweeting pleasure.

Web 100: Best law blogs 

Blogs are a big deal in the legal community, and up and coming legal students read them! Following are a few of the best of the ABA Journal’s best (in our humble opinion):

Before the Bar 

was recommended for Law Students to read. The posts include information about prepping for the bar, information about cases, current trends, and contacts and resources for the aspiring lawyer.

The Dialogue Blog 

was recommended as a great source for learning about the challenges facing BigLaw firms and how to address them.

Empirical SCOTUS 

has data about the Supreme Court straight from the source: the U.S. Supreme Court statistician crunches numbers that tell the story of the court’s past and that try to predict its future moves.

The Employer Handbook 

made the Journal’s HALL OF FAME for blogs. The blog by Eric Meyer provides analysis of current legal developments with sharp wit and humor. “witty analysis of current legal developments,” says Jen Cornell of Nilan Johnson Lewis in Minneapolis. “I can often turn it into use right away for my clients.” His blog’s loyal readers say Meyer has fun with his subject matter. His posts recognize “the humor in dealing with human beings,” says Julie Young of JMY Law in Worthington, Ohio.

Web 100: Best law podcasts 

Podcasting is reaching its stride as a medium, and the law community has done its part to fill your drive time with great content. Here are a few of our favorites from the ones recommended in the Web 100:

 The Lawfare Podcast 

A favorite among many legal and political junkies, features in-depth reporting from co-hosts Benjamin Wittes and Susan Hennessey. They dig deep into current legal issues and ask the hard questions that a lot of reporters shy away from.

Amicus 

with Dahlia Lithwick is hosted by Author Dahlia Lithwick, who writes about the courts and the law for Slate. The podcast breaks down legal issues and makes them entertaining and easy to understand.

If you’re looking for a legal podcast, then by definition The Legal Geek Podcasts [http://thelegalgeeks.com] are probably for you. According to the Journal, “…Jessica Mederson and Joshua Gilliland watch the latest superhero sequel and wonder how the courts would sort out the carnage. Heavy doses of comic books and sci-fi make this chatty podcast a guilty pleasure for fans of the Justice League and other defenders of justice.”

Web 100: Best law Twitter 

We recommend following all 25 of the Twitter feeds recommended by the ABA Journal, but here are a few of our personal favorites:

American Bar Association
(@ABAesq). Follow this feed to keep up with the ABA and other legal news.

Brian Cuban
(@bcuban), attorney, speaker, and author of The Addicted Lawyer.

The Florida Bar
(@theflabar). “The least stuffy bar association Twitter account you’ll come across—it’s informative and fun!” —Correia (ABA Journal Staff Member)

Sherrilyn Ifill
(@Sifill_LDF), president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Recruiting is kind of like online dating. To decide who you are going to hire, you look through resumes (profiles), then you call to schedule an interview (plan a first date), and the convince your candidate to accept the job you are offering (woo your date). And, like dating, a lot of factors play into whether or not you get the candidate you want to get.

What persuades a candidate to take a position?

Many people would say the number one pull for candidates is money. However, according to a recent Forbes article by Wade Burgess, this a myth that is overwhelming proved false by the fact that what people really want is to be excited about their work and the culture at their workplace. According to Burgess, “Candidates’ decisions are ultimately influenced by non-financial factors including the work they’ll get to do each day, company culture, their team, schedule flexibility, professional development opportunities and much more.”

While the Forbes article was written for recruiting in the Tech world, the facts hold true for pretty much every profession. Daniel Pink and others have proven that the factors that truly motivate people are intrinsic, rather than external.

Many business owners who believe that money is a primary factor, and if they don’t think they are offering a high enough salary, they compensate with perks and incentives that highlight work-life balance and stress reduction. Some incentives that companies offer include a workplace spa, a gym membership, or other crazy initiatives, á la Google, a company known for having a super fun workplace environment. These incentives are sometimes even more effective than a high salary because candidates want meaningful work and meaningful ways to create a better work-life balance reduce stress, and often care more about these things than the size of their paycheck.

Another salient point in the Burgess article is that “Excellence Has No Headquarters!“ What does this mean? It means that while many people believe that you can only find the best of the best employees for certain industries in their headquarter cities (Silicon Valley for the tech industry, New York or DC for attorneys). While it seems like it would be a truth, this is actually also a myth. There are a lot of diamonds in the rough, and they’re often found in remote locations far from the traditional industry headquarters, and employers would be wise to keep an open mind in that regard.

The final myth is that the top companies attract the best talent, and it’s impossible to complete. How many times have you heard that the best tech talent works for Facebook and Google? While those companies do attract high quality talent, there is an entrepreneurial spirit running through today’s workforce, and many candidates long for the opportunity to stretch their legs and grow, something that isn’t always possible at larger companies. If you are a smaller company trying to attract good talent, highlight the opportunities for growth and the chance for new employees to contribute to the company’s long-term growth strategy. That may make you stand out from your large corporate competitors for talented employees who long to truly make a difference.

So what’s the message?

The message is that, just as in any relationship, there is not one right way to attract a good employee, and what works for one may not work for the other. Burgess concludes, “Many factors influence career decisions, and like any relationship, every recruiting experience is unique. To stay competitive, companies need to find the right chemistry with candidates by offering unique opportunities to address inspiring challenges in the world.”

Companies need to build their own culture. They need to be committed and true to it and ensure that the incentives they offer fit that culture. It is most important to be true to yourself and to build the best organization you can from the inside so that you will naturally attract the people that are a perfect fit for your organization.

Generation Y, more commonly known as the “Millennial Generation,” is the fastest growing segment of today’s workforce, and that includes those entering the legal profession. This generation has gotten a lot of attention because they grew up in the digital age and excel at multi-tasking, and so they work, think, and act much differently than their parents and grandparents. Many people operate under the (mostly false) assumption that millennials are lazy, ineffective, and less capable than their Generation X parents and their baby boomer grandparents. But like ‘em or hate ‘em, the young people of Generation X are the ones who will be filling new positions at firms around the world, and it would behoove the leadership at those firms to understand the things that are important to millennials, which will help them when they are recruiting from this pool of new attorneys. A recent report from the Census Bureau regarding changes in economics and demographics in young adulthood can serve as a guideline.

Millennials were born between 1982 and 2000 and likely entered law school between 2000 and 2018. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of recent Census Bureau data, Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, with more than one in three Americans labor force participants representing Generation Y. And as of 2017, some 56 million of them were working or looking for work.

While there are many good qualities that millennial attorneys will bring to the table—the ability to multi-task, a strong understanding of technology, and a slavish devotion to being the best—perhaps the most important thing that they offer is their sense of what it means to be an adult. For most millennials, educational attainment and economic security rank at the very top of the list in important milestones for adulthood, and this can be a huge benefit for law firms seeking the best and brightest from Generation Y.

In a Census Bureau report from April 2017, author Jonathan Vespa cites some interesting changes in young adulthood over the last 40 years that will have a significant effect on the future workforce, and particularly on the future of the legal profession. One of the most interesting findings in the report was the finding that educational and economic accomplishments are the most important things for this new generation:

“Most of today’s Americans believe that educational and economic accomplishments are extremely important milestones of adulthood. In contrast, marriage and parenthood rank low: over half of Americans believe that marrying and having children are not very important in order to become an adult.”

Unlike the generations that came before them, Generation Y ranks finishing school as the most important milestone for adulthood. The emphasis on education is evident in the massive amount of student debt that seems to be in the headlines every other day. But the students who take on debt for their education overwhelmingly work hard to finish their education, and will be anxious to find a job. Millennials are waiting until later in life to marry and start a family, often by five or ten years longer than the generations before them.

Economic security is the second most important milestone. About 50 percent of adults believe that having a full-time job and being able to financially support a family are extremely important when it comes to being an adult. Because of this, many millennials delay moving out of their parents’ homes and launching out on their own until they feel that they can do so responsibly, and many of them do so with the support of their parents. The report shows that about 1 in 3 of all 18- to 34-year- olds rely on their parents for financial assistance, including help with student loan payments, living expenses, and mortgage down payments when they finally do strike out on their own.

These findings are significant for the legal profession. First, the emphasis on education has produced a wide field of candidates for every industry, including legal services. The students who take on the debt of law school will be motivated to start paying those loans down, and because they are delaying marriage and family until later in life, chances are good that your new crop of attorneys from Generation Y will be more willing to put in the long hours needed to establish a strong legal career.

The findings in this report are also significant because the millennials who go to law school more likely than not lived with their parents while they were doing so. When they embark on their new legal careers, they will be more likely to be financially responsible and anxious to create economic stability for themselves—qualities that any profession would be happy to have among their newest employees.