A professional legal recruiter is very good at finding and delivering multiple candidates suitable for employment at your firm, even when the position that needs to be filled is a very high-visibility, top management job. Undoubtedly, you have some in-house personnel who can do some of those same things, and find the talent needed to fill specific openings in your legal firm.
So what makes a professional recruiter more qualified than anyone on your staff, and why should you consider paying someone to do a job which could be handled by someone in your own company? Why are major corporations and large law firms more than willing to enlist the services of professional recruiting agencies to find talent? There are some definite differences between professional legal recruiters and anyone you may have in-house, as the discussion below should illustrate.
Negotiating Skills
One of the more overlooked skills a legal recruiter brings to the table is that of negotiation between clients and candidates, and this is a natural consequence of their ‘middleman’ position between the two. The legal recruiter represents both parties and is therefore ideally situated to bring about an agreement between the two, where such compromise is possible.
Any minor obstacles which can come up during the process are usually handled efficiently by a skilled legal recruiter so that that common ground can be discovered by the parties involved. The process of recruiting qualified talent to fill professional legal openings can be a very delicate matter at times, and it calls for genuine understanding and some skill at negotiating. The best legal recruiters are all very adept at this.
Matchmaking Skills
It’s not exactly a dating service, but a legal recruiter does usually have the cognizance necessary to match the right candidate with a firm in need of the candidate’s specific skills. To ensure the legal firm’s long-term stability, a conscientious legal recruiter will thoroughly vet candidates who appear to be well-suited on the surface.
That research must go below the surface though, to find out exactly what kind of person the candidate is. In truth, a weak candidate match reflects poorly on the legal recruiter as well, so it isn’t just a matter of inconvenience to the client firm – the reputation of the recruiter is also on the line.
The match-making legal recruiter also has to take into account all the elements about the legal hiring firm which are relevant to a potential candidate, for instance, their location, the areas of legal practice they’re engaged in, existing talent within the company, and the culture of the firm.
There is probably never a perfect fit between candidate and hiring company, and that’s why the skills of the legal recruiter are so valuable—finding numerous areas where the two can complement each other could very well lead to a long, thriving relationship. When things work out well, it can become a match made in heaven, with the candidate being very happy about working at the new company, and the legal firm prospering as a direct result of hiring a talented individual.
Legal Recruiter Discretion During the Search
There are many situations where a company in search of a high-profile candidate would not want that fact publicized. As one possibility, there may be in-house candidates who feel they were overlooked for the position, even though they may technically have been qualified. It’s also possible that conducting a broad search through classified ads and other channels may alert competitors to your company’s future direction.
Whatever the reasons might be, if it’s necessary for your company to maintain confidentiality during a search for an appropriate candidate, a legal recruiter would probably be your best bet for accomplishing that. In discussions with your chosen recruiter, you can make it clear that you prefer the search to be carried out confidentially, and that the selection process to be discreet.
Sense of Urgency
If for some reason, your company needs to find and interview candidates relatively quickly, you probably won’t have the resources to do that within your own company. If urgency is a factor in executing the selection process, a legal recruiter is well-equipped to carry that out on your behalf. Whereas you may not have anyone in your own company who can commit eight hours a day or more to finding candidates, a legal recruiter expects to spend every day doing exactly that, all day long.
Able to expedite the process, a recruiter will be much more familiar with the local marketplace and talent pool than anyone else who might be enlisted to help with the search. Not only does the recruiter have extensive knowledge of the local landscape, but they also generally have an extensive network of colleagues and contacts, all of whom can be consulted to help advance the progress of the search. When time is of the essence, there is no faster way that suitable legal talent can be discovered, vetted, and provided as interview candidates than through a legal recruiter.