A common misconception is that recruitment businesses have a raft of these people ‘on their books’. Top quality lawyers are not like actors, scrambling around for any work that their agent can find them. The best lawyers are in work, at a good firm and are usually well regarded and well paid. They also tend to be happier where they are than their less successful colleagues. They are rarely looking for a job.

So that’s the bad news. The good news is that these people do still move. However they sometimes need a little encouragement. This usually begins with us calling them and letting them know that there may actually be an even better opportunity elsewhere for someone with their talents. Assuming this charm offensive works (it often doesn’t) and our superstar lawyer agrees to let us send their CV to our client, the charm offensive baton is then passed from us to the law firm.

Unfortunately it is here that it is sometimes dropped. Candidates who have been convinced to meet a firm that is looking are often subjected to an interview bordering on an interrogation. Firms often open up with the classic – “so why are you looking to leave x firm?” Firms are then surprised when the lawyer replies that they aren’t looking to leave at all. The whole recruitment process can fall apart through this simple lack of appreciation of the respective negotiating positions of the two parties.

So what can be done to avoid this? Well, firstly it is our job as recruiters to make sure our clients are told when a candidate has been approached, rather than has approached us. Clients must approach the critical first disussion aware of the need to sell the firm to the lawyer, as well as to establish whether the lawyer is right for them. No matter what the level of the lawyer, clients should remember that it’s a meeting, not an interview.

The legal community is always on the move. Whether it is a big ticket deal, a firm merger, a new office opening, or a controversial move, there is always a story to read about and therefore research to be done.

As a legal researcher you need to think like a detective. Every piece of information that can be captured will be useful in some way or another to a client, candidate or colleague. Our clients assume we will be able to obtain the basic profile of a lawyer, but it is the additional and often anecdotal information, which really brings our research function to life.

Any client looking to make a hire, particularly at the senior end, needs to know that the potential individual not only has the right experience, but will also fit their culture. At Glass we make every effort to provide a complete picture of the candidates included in our research, including their career backgrounds, latest deals and personal information, such as whether they are married, have a family and what they enjoy doing in their spare time. 

As a researcher you are providing your client with information that will allow them to determine whether a potential hire will have a future at their firm. By including the opinions of ex colleagues and clients you start to create a general picture of a particular person and what it may be like to work with them. Surprises can be both good and bad. If you hire an individual without this research, you are taking a risk which could possibly backfire and cost you far more than just money.

“They hadn’t read my CV before the meeting”.
“One of them spent the meeting checking his emails under the desk”.
“One of the partners left half way through”.
“They didn’t even ask me if I had any questions”.
“They looked like they hadn’t slept or washed for about a week”.
“I didn’t hear for six weeks and then they asked me if I was still interested”.
“They asked about my A level results, even though I took them ten years ago”.

Sound familiar? These are just a few of the printable negative comments we hear from candidates following meetings with law firms.

The best lawyers are still in short supply. When the best people do decide to move, they often explore more than one option. Yet time and again, law firms make basic errors in failing to prepare for and approach recruitment in the right way. How a law firm conducts itself during the recruitment process nearly always reflects how the law firm is run and how the lawyer will be treated were they to join. With very few exceptions, the most successful, busiest, best run law firms also have the best run, most efficient recruitment processes.

It therefore just doesn’t wash for a law firm to blame a heavy workload on its failure to conduct a proper interview, provide feedback in a timely way, make their mind up and make the right offer to the right person in the right way.

Law firms need to remember that they are only as good as the people they have. If they want the best people, they need to make sure the best people will want them at the end of the recruitment process.

In what circumstances should a law firm consider investing upfront risk capital to utilise the services of a headhunter?

The majority of roles that need to be filled by a law firm in any year can be done so through personal contacts or through the general legal recruitment market. However, certain roles need a more sophisticated and research led approach with a more aggressive and personal campaign needed to reach the right potential targets.

For example, a firm may be looking to expand into an area of law of which it has not had much previous experience. It may not know who the main players are in that market, what the issues are, where that market is heading, etc. A specialist headhunter, backed up by a strong research team, will be able to able to drill directly into the profession and provide an overview of all of the client’s key competitors and the individuals within those departments who are likely to become the relevant targets with the desired skill-set.  A Glass research document averages between 100-200 pages for each assignment.

The market view of a firm or a department within a firm may be lagging the reality. Recent successes and growth may have gone unnoticed. A good headhunter, face to face with a target for an uninterrupted hour, will be able to get across that untold story and hopefully create an interest in their client that would never have been there otherwise. The majority of the targets that move to our clients tell us that they would never have joined that firm if we had not imposed ourselves into their life.

For certain roles, there will only ever be a small number of individuals who might be right. These roles might include those with a leadership element or a strong strategic need. Or the market might be a particularly tight one. Without using a headhunter, how else can a firm ensure that those targets know that the role is available?

Whilst there is an upfront cost to using a headhunter, the retainer charged ensures that a law firm has carefully thought through their need for a specific role to be filled. The amount charged is normally set at a level to cover the costs of the research that is undertaken. The consultant running the assignment will take “ownership” of it and should always strive to fill the role not just to keep his/her client happy and not just for reasons of professional pride but because without succeeding they will not earn a living!

Glass has one of the most experienced teams of recruiters in the legal market and therefore we are in a strong position to put our collective fingers on what it takes to be a successful headhunter.

Whilst many recruiters in the legal market used to be lawyers, most lawyers do not have the skills needed to be a headhunter. It is far easier to teach a natural salesperson the knowledge needed to operate within the legal sector than it is to train a lawyer to become a salesperson. In fact, some of the main legal headhunting businesses were set up and continue to be run by individuals who previously had no connection with the legal profession.

So, at Glass, we are more interested in the qualities of a potential recruit than their background. But we find it surprisingly difficult to find all of the qualities that we look for in an applicant. To be considered for a role at Glass, you will need to:

• Be a self starter
• Be hard working
• Be determined
• Be motivated
• Have the ability to cold-call potential candidates and clients
• Build relationships speedily
• Be able to sell
• Be able to create opportunities
• Undertake research
• Be resilient – be able to pick yourself up when everything goes wrong
• Be a team player
• Have a strong and self-deprecating sense of humour
• Be a deal doer
• Be tenacious