Legal Recruiters Are Incentivized to Match Attorneys With Their Ideal Positions
If you’re an attorney-candidate reentering the legal job market, you may have considered (or are currently considering) enlisting the services of a qualified legal recruiter to assist you with the hiring process and to help you identify best-fit positions at various firms and/or in-house legal departments.
Legal recruiters are invaluable, for a number of different reasons, but many attorney-candidates do not know how legal recruitment works and what it entails. Some may have concerns about fee arrangements, and whether (and how) contingency fee arrangements influence the hiring process.
Fortunately, there’s really no reason to worry. Let’s put some of these misconceptions to rest.
What Does a Legal Recruiter Actually Do?
Legal recruiters advise attorney-candidates throughout the application and hiring process, assisting them with a range of issues, such as identification of “best fit” opportunities, resume writing, application development, interviewing, and networking. In doing so, legal recruiters help connect qualified attorney-candidates with employers who are interested in hiring candidates who have been selected by the recruiter (and who therefore meet an expected standard of experience and skillset).
Recruiter Fee Arrangements
Legal recruiters are paid on a contingency basis (though some legal recruiters assess a retainer fee) — critically, it is the employer, not the attorney-candidate, who ultimately pays the contingency fee. In the event that the employer hires an attorney-candidate that the legal recruiter represents during the application and hiring process, said employer must pay the contingency fee to the recruiter.
Many attorney-candidates (who could benefit from the guidance of an experienced legal recruiter) find the contingency fee arrangement between employers and legal recruiters off-putting. Some candidates mistakenly believe that recruiters will be desperate to present any and all candidates to the employer, thus delegitimizing their application. Others mistakenly believe that recruiters will be pushy and will force the candidate to consider employers that are a poor fit, just so that they can earn their contingency fee.
In reality, however, the contingency fee arrangement — and various safeguards, such as fee refunds — create favorable dynamics for attorney-candidates.
How Fees and Safeguards Influence the Dynamics of Legal Recruiting
Legal recruiters may be paid on contingency, but employers may have their fee refunded if the candidate is not a good fit, and as a result, the attorney-candidate is fired or resigns from their new position (within a short period of time).
How does this work? Consider the following.
Suppose, for example, that you work with a legal recruiter who has not done their homework, so to speak, and consistently pushes you to consider an employer who you aren’t quite certain about. Eventually, the employer makes you an offer, and you accept at the urging of the legal recruiter.
Now, six months down the line, you may despise the position and the work environment at the firm. The legal recruiter exaggerated the positives and did not disclose the negatives aspects of the position and of the firm culture. As such, you decide to quit at the six month mark.
If you quit early due to bad fit, the legal recruiter will have to refund their contingency fees to the employer. Further, the recruiter will suffer damage to their reputation in the industry, and with that particular employer. Over time, too many “misfires” can severely undermine a legal recruiter’s business.
Legal recruiters are therefore subject to twin pressures: 1) they must successfully get their attorney-candidates hired by employers, and 2) they must ensure that the hire is beneficial to both parties. If either the attorney or the employer is unhappy, then it could lead to quitting/firing and a refund of the contingency fee. As such, legal recruiters are strongly incentivized to make use of their insider knowledge and networks to connect attorney-candidates to positions that they know will be the “best fit” for each candidate.
Contact an Experienced San Francisco Legal Recruiter for Further Guidance
Whether you’re an attorney interested in making the jump over to a new law firm, or into a thriving in-house career, it’s important that you get in touch with an experienced legal recruiter. Here at Garb Jaffe & Associates, our team of experienced Los Angeles legal recruiters boast decades of combined experience placing attorneys with prestigious law firms and corporations throughout the state of California.
We understand that attorney-candidates have varying needs. As such, we provide advisory services throughout the entire length of the hiring process, assisting candidates with interview concerns, application development, resume writing, and networking. We work with candidates to identify ideal employers, and serve as an “insider resource” for candidates — utilizing our extensive network of firms, in-house departments, and attorneys, we can help candidates sift through the marketing-speak and get to the truth of the matter when it comes to the working environment and culture of various firms/in-house departments.
Call today at (310) 207-0727 to schedule a consultation with one of the skilled legal recruiters here at Garb Jaffe & Associates. We look forward to helping you take the next big step in your career.