Recruiting for a legal firm can be a very tricky process, and it’s one that calls for the utmost precision, because of the potential for selecting the wrong candidate. It has happened many times, and it will undoubtedly happen many more times in the future, that a candidate is an excellent interviewee, but is someone who lacks the talent to perform at a high level for your legal firm. While it’s far short of being an exact science, there are some telltale signs to look for when conducting a job interview with candidates for legal positions, which can help improve your chances of making the right choice.
Listen to What is Said
As a legal recruiter, you should get into the habit of not being overwhelmed by an incredibly smooth talker, e.g., someone who could talk for two hours about the nature of a pencil. More important is what the interviewee is saying, rather than how appealing their delivery might be.
One thing that you can be on the lookout for is when you detect that responses have merely been rehearsed or memorized, and are being smoothly regurgitated for your benefit. It can also be a cunning ploy by an interviewee to respond to a question about his/her weaknesses by describing something that sounds more like a strength. This is the kind of question that someone on a job interview anticipates, and it’s one that your candidate might well have worked out the most evasive response for—even if it doesn’t answer your question.
Speaking of evasiveness, it’s also a good idea to be alert to the possibility of seemingly terrific responses that are very smooth and thoughtful-sounding, but which don’t answer the question at all. This kind of redirect may be hiding something the interviewee doesn’t want you to know, so a little red flag should pop up in your head when you sense this kind of evasiveness.
One last observation about the manner in which your interviewee responds to questions is that you should be aware of long, rambling answers that go far beyond what you initially asked. This too can be a way of covering up something that your candidate doesn’t want to be scrutinized.
The Best Questions to Ask
If you want to get a feel for the kind of conversationalist that your candidate is, it’s entirely acceptable to ask a few general questions or even some throwaways, just to get him/her speaking, and to gauge responsiveness. However, as a legal recruiter, what you should be trying to achieve is to find the best possible candidate attorney to fill the position available.
While specific characteristics deemed desirable by legal firms may vary somewhat, most are looking for candidates that have a team attitude, have a healthy, active academic background, and are willing to work hard for the firm. In order to obtain some sense of whether a particular candidate possesses some or all of these characteristics, there are some tried and true questions you can formulate.
As an example, you might ask why they chose their specific area of practice, what were the most significant lessons they learned at law school, where they see the future of law heading, and even why they got involved in the legal profession in the first place.
The Personal Side of a Job Interview
It is crucial to assess the personal side of an interviewee in a face-to-face meeting, as well as their academic and professional qualifications. This might be the first and only opportunity your firm has to find out what kind of person a candidate might be, as opposed to what level of expertise he/she brings to the table. Finding out about character and personality can be just as important as finding out about expertise or skill sets.
This being so, a legal recruiter should make every attempt during the meeting with a candidate to find out things of a more personal nature. It’s worthwhile to try and find out what’s important to your candidate, and how he/she spends time away from the job. You won’t discover the candidate’s whole belief system in the space of one interview, but you should be able to get a feel for what matters to them.
Maybe they’re heavily involved in the community or with charitable causes, maybe they have a terrific family life, and maybe they have strong local political ties. Whatever the case may be, it’s worth the effort to find out everything you can about a person before welcoming them into your legal firm. A background check and research may help in this regard, but hearing it from a candidate’s mouth can tell you a lot about what kind of person they are.
Past Successes and Failures
There’s one last thing you should consider during a job interview with a potential candidate for a prominent position with your legal firm. You should take into account those things which worked well during past interviews and were particularly revealing, just as you should consider dropping those questions which provided little value. Since your goal is to hire the best candidate for the job, you should always use those questions, and the kind of dialogue, which help to achieve that objective.