How to Find the Best Legal Recruiter (for You)
How many times have you put off hiring someone to do a job you needed done, because you didn’t know how to go about picking the right professional?
Maybe you needed a new hair stylist, or a nanny for your unexpected third child, or a landscaper to fix that sinkhole in your backyard. It’s time consuming to sift through your options, and you’ve often got that niggling worry that maybe you didn’t find the best handyman, dog walker, or personal chef.
With most of those types of professionals, we can’t help (although we’d be happy to help you taste test the work of personal chefs). But if it’s time to make a career move, and you’ve wisely decided to work with a legal recruiter, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how we recommend you go about choosing the best legal recruiter for your needs:
Gather a few names.
Maybe your friend worked with a recruiter they loved. Maybe you had a great conversation on the phone with a recruiter a year ago, or had a nice, non-pushy exchange with a recruiter on LinkedIn. You don’t need a long list - you’re just looking for a place to start.
Do some internet sleuthing.
Check out both the recruiter’s website (or the website of their company) and their LinkedIn page. How long have they been in the industry? More years of experience isn’t necessarily better than fewer, but if you’re interested in a newer recruiter, check out their agency/company. Has it been around for a long time, with a track record of placing candidates?
As long as you’re looking at the recruiter’s company - is the company a member of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC), which has a code of ethics that members must follow? This code of ethics has tangible effects on you - NALSC members can submit your resume only with specific authorization, cannot withhold essential information from you about firms, and must treat all your information as confidential, among other things. Basically, those shady things you sometimes hear about some recruiters? NALSC members are not engaging in those dubious practices, and they’re reporting it if they hear about others doing it.
What else has the recruiter done besides recruiting? Do they have experience as a practicing attorney, as recruiting staff at a law firm, or something else that matters to you? There’s no right answer here - maybe it matters to you that your recruiter has a record of volunteer work, or supporting causes that matter to you. Maybe it matters to you that your recruiter at one time had to bill 2000 hours, so they know what they’re proposing when they bring you a firm with that same requirement. Maybe your recruiter worked on the law firm side at your dream firm, and you want the inside scoop about applying to that firm. Maybe your recruiter was a personal stylist, and you know you’ll get the best advice on interview-day fashion. Whatever it is, make sure you have a sense of your recruiter’s experience and expertise.
Have a conversation.
Any recruiter you pick should be happy to have a completely no-pressure phone and/or Zoom conversation with you, at a time that’s convenient for you. You do not have to commit to anything to have this conversation.
Do you like the recruiter on the phone? When I was buying a house, I got the advice that I should genuinely like my realtor, because I was going to be spending a lot of time with her. A legal recruiter is the same way. Your job search might be super quick, but you might be working with your recruiter for a long time. Does your recruiter make you laugh, or calm you down, or otherwise make your day better? Even more importantly, does the recruiter listen to you, and ask questions about you, instead of just trying to sell themselves, or a specific job? You want a recruiter who wants to get you what you want.
Ask what sorts of employers the recruiter works with, in which geographies. Make sure the recruiter’s answer lines up with what you want! If you want to go to a boutique in San Diego, don’t work with a recruiter who focuses on BigLaw in New York. They won’t know the market you’re interested in, or have connections with the people you need them to have connections with. (If you like them, you can always save their name and recommend them to your lawyer cousin - many recruiters will thank you in a tangible way!)
By the way, regarding geography, we might be biased, but we don’t think a national recruiter can know all markets in the United States (and/or abroad) super well. There are just too many firms, and too many location-specific quirks to the market. We recommend picking a recruiter who focuses on just one or just a few geographies. If you’re potentially interested in jobs in several cities, your recruiter might work in both those cities (for example, SLS can assist in both San Francisco and Los Angeles). But if your recruiter isn’t equipped to assist you in two faraway cities (for example, San Francisco and New York), ask your recruiter who they would recommend to assist you in the other city. Most recruiters have someone either at their agency or another agency whom they trust and to whom they can refer you. I have worked in tandem with East Coast recruiters on multiple occasions, and we work together to get the attorney what THEY want and need, instead of working at cross purposes.
Finally, feel free to ask your recruiter for references!
Pick ONE recruiter.
Listen, we understand. There are some wonderful recruiters out there (we’ve got six of ‘em). Maybe you’re like me, the sort of person who says “a slice of each, please” when it’s time for dessert. But we promise you that your interests will be best served if you have just one recruiter (and you can still have all the pie).
Why? A number of reasons.
You want someone who can manage your job search. You don’t want to have to manage which recruiter submitted you where and which recruiter brought you which opportunity. You also don’t want to have to manage telling Recruiter B things like, “Oh no thanks, I’ve already been submitted to that job.” You have limited time when you’re not working - use that time on things that matter, like spending time with your family, getting exercise, or getting caught up on the latest season of Love Is Blind.
You want someone who can be an impartial advisor. Let’s say you end up with competing offers. You want your recruiter to be able to give you impartial advice about which offer (if any!) you should accept. Now, a great recruiter should do that for you anyway, even if you’re holding an offer that you didn’t receive through them. (And my colleagues and I have all done that before - wistfully recommended that an attorney take an offer that doesn’t benefit us in the slightest.) But people are human, and you are going to want to know that your recruiter isn’t recommending Firm A over Firm B just because they make money if you go to Firm A and they don’t if you go to Firm B.
There are a few exceptions to the “just one recruiter” advice, of course. As noted above, if you’re looking in distinct geographic regions, you might need more than one recruiter. Similarly, if you’re looking at different industries - usually this would be an attorney who is interested in exploring both law firm and in-house jobs. As with the different geographies, ask your recruiter if they can recommend someone they trust.
Bonus advice: Don’t be afraid to pivot.
Did you pick the wrong recruiter? Is the person you chose unresponsive, or did they send out your resume to places you didn’t authorize? You can stop working with them. Just give them a heads up (as tempting as it might be to ghost) - in writing is best, because then you have the paper trail to show firms who might get your materials from that recruiter after that date. In addition, ask your previous recruiter to give you a list of all the firms to which you’ve been submitted, and the dates of those submissions - any non-shady recruiter should provide that, no questions asked.
And then please feel free to contact us! We can help you if you’re just starting out, or untangling a former recruiter’s misdeeds. And I’m definitely biased about this, but I think we’re all pretty fun to talk to.