Common signs that your law firm should hire a legal recruiter include missed pitches, stalled laterals, and a high associate churn rate. A legal recruiter streamlines and expedites the hiring process while facilitating higher-quality placements. A recruiter achieves this through market mapping, valuable market intelligence, and back-channeling.
Law firms can maximize their return on investment (ROI) from working with a legal recruiter by measuring the recruiter’s effectiveness based on various KPIs. These KPIs include time-to-slate, time-to-offer, offer acceptance rate, and 12-month retention. Clear and concise communication matters when briefing a headhunter. Let them understand your scorecards and candidate must-haves to ensure you hire quality talent.
At Astor Professional Search, we are committed to helping law firms maximize their productivity and profitability. Call us at (312) 781-9000 for legal recruiting solutions tailored to your needs.
Many law firm executives rely on traditional in-house recruitment processes. These processes are no longer effective due to the ever-changing market dynamics. As an executive, you should watch out for signs that it’s time to consider the alternative – outsourcing hiring to a legal recruiter. These signs include:
Missed pitches are one of the key signs that your law firm needs to hire a headhunter. A missed pitch occurs when a hiring candidate rejects your firm’s offer. When your internal recruiting department fails to understand the needs of the candidate, or your interests are not in alignment, candidates are unlikely to accept offers.
You should consider bringing a legal recruiter on board if your law firm struggles to complete lateral moves. Stalled laterals show that your recruiting pipeline lacks movement. In most cases, it’s a firm’s indecision in critical recruitment issues that slows down the process. As a result, crucial hiring processes get stalled, taking weeks to advance to the next stage. Consequently, associates or partners making lateral moves get “stuck” along the way. Lateral moves may also stall because of rushed onboarding processes and internal bottlenecks.
Associate attrition rate rose from 18% in 2023 to 20% in 2024. High attrition rate forces your firm to constantly hire and train new employees. That comes with huge financial implications. It also impacts the firm’s productivity and client experience. A legal recruiter can help reduce turnover rates by matching your firm with talent that fits your culture and workload demands.
Before hiring a headhunter, determine how going that route compares with in-house hiring. Variables to look at include:
Both in-house and outsourced recruiting come with costs. In-house recruiting requires you to use money to compensate internal recruiters, handle job advertising, and offer candidate training. Using an external recruiter, on the other hand, may involve paying a one-time fixed fee or a percentage.
You may incur lower costs per hire if you opt for an in-house hiring team. You will, however, take longer to hire and onboard new talent. You will also incur branding costs to attract top talent. Working with a recruiter may have higher costs per hire, but it enhances your firm’s productivity.
In-house hiring is usually slower because of the restricted recruiting power. The process also lacks movement due to inefficient candidate reviews. External headhunters recruit legal executives more effectively because they have control over the hiring process. They have a deep market understanding and access to a large talent pool.
With in-house recruiting, your talent search scope is often scattered across a wider and unfocused pool. That is why your firm may be struggling to find qualified associates. You don’t have to worry about that when working with a legal recruiter. Recruiters use market mapping to concentrate on the right talent pool where they can identify top attorney candidates. Market mapping allows recruiters to access valuable data on candidate movement and availability. Instead of waiting for random applications, they identify and engage top talent to fill your legal vacancy.
Vetting partners is highly crucial in legal recruiting. With the high costs associated with legal recruiting, any mis-hire can hamper value creation. Back-channeling goes beyond resume reviews and interviews. A legal recruiter digs deeper to find candidates’ former employers. They’ll ask about the candidate’s work ethic, strengths and weaknesses, and personality. Back-channeling a partner’s career trajectory ensures the legal partner is a perfect fit for your firm.
Legal recruiters’ hiring processes go above and beyond the traditional law firm recruiting strategies. They focus on understanding how your competition hires. It’s a strategic approach that identifies the best recruiting practices. This intelligence enables a headhunter to identify gaps and opportunities in the market, giving your firm a competitive edge in the employment market.
Legal hiring takes significant financial resources. The process also disrupts your firm’s day-to-day operations. Therefore, you must take measures to maximize your legal recruiter ROI.
It’s crucial to understand that partner laterals and associate hiring are different playbooks. That said, each recruitment process calls for a different approach. Clearly brief the recruiter on your interview scorecards and candidates’ must-haves or nice-to-have qualities. This enables your headhunter to know your ideal candidate. With this information, the recruiter can tailor the services to suit your unique recruitment needs.
Working exclusively with one recruiting firm builds your brand. It prevents situations where multiple headhunters approach candidates with similar job offers. With exclusivity, one recruiting firm represents your brand, giving your firm a unique presence in the market.
Feedback is highly important when working with a legal recruiter. By providing honest feedback, you can measure a recruiter’s effectiveness in securing top talent.
The key performance indicators to focus on when working with a legal recruiter include:
This metric measures a recruiter’s ability to convince a candidate to accept an offer after a job requisition approval. Understanding a recruiter’s time-to-fill helps you plan the recruiting process and even tell when the process has been delayed.
This metric refers to the time it takes a recruiter to hire an attorney candidate from the moment they join your recruitment pipeline to the time of offer acceptance.
An offer acceptance rate (OAR) refers to the number of candidates who accept a job offer. You determine a recruiter’s OAR by dividing the number of accepted job offers by the number of offers extended by the firm. This metric demonstrates the recruiter’s effectiveness in identifying suitable candidates and overseeing the offer process.
Retaining top legal talent is a challenge for many firms. You need a legal recruiter whose hiring practices promote high retention rates. The 12-month retention indicator indicates the percentage of new employees who remain in their new position for at least 12 months.
The legal industry is filled with many recruitment firms. With such a large pool of headhunters, there are good chances of encountering unprofessional firms.
Not even a top recruiter can guarantee that you’ll secure your ideal talent for a legal position. A good recruiter will only give a realistic picture of what to expect after understanding your firm’s culture. They’ll advise you based on the prevailing market conditions.
Avoid a recruiter who pressures you to hire a candidate against your will. A disreputable headhunter often puts their bottom line before your needs. Thus, they might aggressively push you to make a quick decision in recruitment matters. That robs you of the space and time to think critically. You’re likely to hire the wrong talent when working with such a recruiter.
Communication between you and your legal recruiter is crucial. A professional recruiter will correspond with you at every stage of the legal recruitment process. The recruiter must listen and understand your expectations. The recruiter must also offer value by clarifying any concerns you have. A recruiter with poor communication skills can cripple your recruitment strategy.
Astor Professional Search is ready to minimize your hiring risk and match you with top-tier legal professionals. Contact us today to schedule a consultation with our dedicated legal placement team.
Some signs that a law firm should hire a legal recruiter include missed pitches, stalled lateral hires, and a high attrition rate.
A legal recruiter matches you with the best legal professionals at a quick turnaround. Recruiters leverage market mapping, competitive intelligence, and back-channeling to identify top talent.
A law firm can measure ROI from working with a legal recruiter by tracking metrics, such as time-to-hire, offer acceptance rate (OAR), and 12-month retention.
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