Can you tell me about working in legal recruitment?

[luckyjimm]

I'm looking to get into the field of legal recruitment, finding jobs for lawyers. I wonder if any of you could tell me about this industry?

I'd be coming into it fairly late - but I figure this isn't that unusual. I'm 29 and tried various things in my twenties. I took a BA, MA and half a PhD in English literature. I did quite a bit of temping, including the last year where I've been a PA in a couple of law firms, working for senior lawyers. I'm personable, articulate, confident, and of course count many more lawyers among my friends than I do secretaries. I'd like a job where I feel I'm working with people from similar backgrounds to my own, I'm rewarded if I work hard, and if I'm successful I can earn a lot more money. (By comparison, my current position is a dead-end). My recruitment agency asked if I'd like to work for them, but in interview told me they thought I'd be more suited in recruiting lawyers, whereas they only deal with secretaries. So I've found out who the big firms are, and am setting out to write them letters. The main weakness in my CV would be lack of sales experience, but other aspects such as high standard of education, time spent in law firms and with lawyers, research skills etc might mitigate that.

How much do you tend to specialise in recruiting one particular type of lawyer, e.g. tax, investment funds, pensions, leveraged finance? Or is it broader than that and you would recruit across all of corporate, or all of finance, etc? What level of legal knowledge is needed to be able to understand a candidate's CV and understand the demands of a job? If you're trying to talk a lawyer into taking a job I'm sure you need to know the jargon.

What's more important - understanding law, or understanding people?

Is the volume of appointments you'd be looking to make a lot lower than in legal secretarial recruitment? How much does this sort of job pay in the States (just out of interest, since I'll be in the UK) and how much do you have to do before you start earning commission?

Is it a rewarding career in which you can make a killing if you're halfway decent, or is it a very over-saturated market, hard to make a placement, you spend all day on the phone and the talked-of earnings potential is misleading?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[JackInDaCrak]

If you find me a job as an associate somewhere I'll buy you some McDonalds.

[luckyjimm]

Bump! Anyone?

[dustyn]

I don't know specifically about legal recruiting but I know a lot about recruiting in general. My guess is you specialize in one type of law (tax attorneys, patent attorneys, etc.). It probably depends on the firm.

Being a recruiter is about making lots of phone calls, networking your butt off and making more phone calls. Knowing how a law office is structured and being able to "talk the talk" is important but ultimately your ability to sell is much more important than your previous interaction with lawyers. However, it won't hurt and will make it a LOT easier to get in the door with a decent agency (you have a compelling story why you want in the business). An agency with a good training program is essential and will help you out a lot.

Most positions in the states are straight commission or a small base salary plus commission. Most recruiters don't make much money but the top 20% make a LOT - it's kinda like Realtors. If you can make it and build a network it's a great gig - if not you'll burn out and likely not make it through your first year.

[luckyjimm]

"Most recruiters don't make much money but the top 20% make a LOT"

Thanks - yes, just from what I know I'm sure this is true. It seems such an over-saturated market. I know just from being a temp that when I update my CV I get called up by 50 different agencies all wanting to find me work. If there are that many people all chasing after the same candidates, and all competing to fill the same jobs, they can't all be doing well. I guess I will only find out by trying it whether it's a more lucrative career than legal secretarial work - but, it can't be any less fun, so it's worth my while trying.

[eviljeff]

I'm summering at a BigLaw firm. from what I've gathered,

1) knowing people is close to infinitely more important than knowing the law

2) there are two types of recruiters. (A) head hunters/cold callers (don't know much about them) and (B) a firm's recruiting coordinator. As far as (B) goes, I think the job is mostly about facilitating the courtship between the firm and an aspiring attorney, from the resume collection on forward. A coordinator makes sure both parties are always informed about what's going on. Basically (s)he is the first-call go-to "guy" for either side. At least at my firm, (B)'s job has nothing to do with finding good candidates. They come to her.

[BretWeir]

I'm not a legal recruiter, but I am a lawyer with big firm experience, and have worked with them.

Basically what eviljeff said -- there are two types of recruiters: recruiting coordinators at big firms and outside agencies.

In-house recruiters are essentially support staff. They field contacts and help arrange interviews for attorneys looking to make a move to the firm, and also coordinate the firm's law student recruiting program. It's not really a salesmanship position, and the substantive interviews themselves are done by lawyers and not recruiters. There's more logistics than anything else: making travel arrangements, setting up interview schedules, coordinating everything with the hiring partner, etc. My understanding is that most resumes get passed on to the hiring partner or hiring committee, who makes the initial decision of whether to interview a candidate. In-house recruiting offices also sometimes arrange social, wine-and-dine-type events for summer associates, which could be fun. Most of these positions are salaried, with no commission.

Outside legal headhunters are a completely different animal. These are firms who are hired to help fill positions (usually for mid-level or more experienced attorneys) at different firms, or by lawyers looking to make a move to find suitable positions. There's a lot of cold-calling of third- and fourth-year big firm associates to see who's getting burned out and looknig to move. This kind of position probably requires much more familiarity with the larger legal market, since there's quite a bit of matchying individual resumes to particular openings. Firms typically pay a bounty to headhunters who fill particular positions -- something along the lines of $10-20k, from what I've been told. I imagine compensation is much more commission-based, and that top headhunters could do quite well financially.

One thing I should mention: the majority of outside recruiters I've dealt with have been former lawyers. Many spent a year or two at a mid-size or large firm, and decided the law wasn't for them, so went into recruiting for the better hours. It might be harder for someone without a law degree or attorney experience to break into the field, though your resume sounds pretty impressive and well-suited for it from what you've said.

[stan1541]

Having been a recruiter for 5 years and what i know about the one guy in our office who recruited attorney's, it sucks! The ego game there is so big. I dealt with bankers and you have to listen to people tell you how great they are, just to turn around and find someone who knows them and have them tell you that they are worth nothing and they just keeping moving every two years. Granted, I got paid alot moving some of those guys.

Truth though: The office managers of firms are concerned about money, so if you are going to do it, you need good candidates and you need to have a good fee base you can charge to justify those candidates. If you have 4 year JD students out of their internship and you charge like you would for a 80 billed hours a week guy, your in trouble.

Lastly, recruiting is recruiting. If you can do it in one industry, you can do it in any industry. The art is finding people and knowing how to sell them to company that will pay you money. I made 6 figures the last 3 years doing this and I got sick of it...so choose wisely, its not easy and usually not fun, but the hours are good and the cash is great.

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
At least at my firm, (B)'s job has nothing to do with finding good candidates. They come to her.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you would be very surprised (especially with lateral hires)