Why Legal Recruiters in New York Exist
World class legal talent is found all over the world, but the penthouse view of the legal profession is New York, and so too is the exclusive domain of the "Big nLaw" firms (which I will discuss a little later). The ability to entice top talent from other markets, whether in the United States or outside, is the leverage that these firms have over their mid-sized and boutique counterparts, as clients perceive the "big nLaw" firms to be the winners in the legal talent economy.
Recruiting firms in New York have a wealth of talent to choose from, but placement inside the "Big nLaw" firms requires a very special skill set. Tall Poppy recruiters are highly trained to deliver the absolute best for our clients.
Top legal talent today is not what it used to be . In-house counsel expect law firms to bring a business mindset in addition to legal expertise. In addition, corporate clients appreciate hiring law firms that are "rain-makers," that is, firms that bring business with them because of their quality and reputation, and the client is quite often willing to pay extra for that quality. Where does this leave the client when their current firm, or their top choice for a firm, is missing one of these attributes?
Finding Top Legal Talent: A Guide to New York Legal Recruiters is a series of blog posts published by Tall Poppy Legal Search LLC. We outline the roles and responsibilities of each of the major legal recruitment firms in New York. This post provides an overview of the legal market in New York, and the role of legal recruiters in bringing firms and top legal talent together.
Best Legal Recruiters in New York
Lateral Link has been making headway in the New York legal market over the last couple of years, specializing in placing attorneys with intellectual property and corporate backgrounds. "Lateral Link currently has 30 clients in the top New York firms," says Myles Katz, general manager of Lateral Link New York. "Our placement rate is in the high 90s." Lateral Link focuses on mid-level and senior level attorneys. Katz says it takes between two and six weeks for a candidate to be placed. The cost of hiring Lateral Link is similar to the cost of hiring another recruiter, but the difference is that Lateral Link guarantees each placement for 120 days. That means that if your placement leaves before the 120 days is up, Lateral Link will work for free to find you a new candidate. If the candidate leaves after 121 days, however, you are on your own.
Legal Search Solutions also boasts impressive client retention rates, with a number of well-placed attorneys remaining with their firms after five years. The company was founded in 1997 by Robert A. Alexander, who took his experience as a recruiter at The Hermes Group to create something better than The Hermes Group by offering more personalized service. Legal Search Solutions offers a range of services to both its attorney and its law firm clients, including resume revisions and career advice for the former, and diversity consulting for the latter. The firm is currently highly selective in the attorneys it works with, currently focusing on the mid-level and senior attorney market. Legal Search Solutions charges a standard fee for a legal search that is reduced by a third for searches made for an American company, which constitutes most of its clientele. Legal Search Solutions has two offices in California and two in New York that places a median of 30 candidates per year.
A legal recruiter needs to be selective in choosing client companies, according to Melissa Foyer, a partner at Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker PA. "Undesirable clients attract undesirable candidates and get a poor result," she says. "We need to align ourselves with the firms that are the best firms in the market."
Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker focuses most of its recruiting efforts on the mid to senior level attorney market. It charges its clients on a sliding scale, with one-third of the first year’s salary charged to the hiring firm as a retainer, then a success fee of 27.5 percent paid when the candidate is placed. Shulman Rogers charges its doctor clients 30 percent of the first year’s salary as a retainer and then a success fee of 11 percent. "It is a sliding scale based on the size of the client company and the level of attorney they are looking to hire," explains Foyer. The firm also guarantees its placements for one year.
Lanny Schaffer Legal Recruiting caters to top-tier firms and is extremely selective about the firms it will work for. It receives most of its applicants from referrals, and thanks to its high profile, is not shy about turning down clients or candidates. Schaffer and his firm claims to be highly successful in its recruiting efforts, with a 97 percent retention rate after placements have succeeded the one-year guarantee period. "The key to any sensible marketing effort is to keep one’s credibility intact," says Schaffer.
Schaffer is highly selective about the firms he will work for, only taking on a few highly reputable companies. This is in part because of the unusually high demand for the recruiter and also to ensure that firms are competitive and high profile. Schaffer offers a one-year guarantee, but unlike some other firms that charge a sliding scale and a success fee, Schaffer only charges a third of the first year’s salary as a success fee. The firm is currently focusing primarily on the mid- to senior-level attorney market. Schaffer says that it costs around $17,500 to hire his agency, which is fairly high even by the standards of New York legal recruiting firms.
How Legal Recruiters Function
Legal recruiters provide law firms with a unique and indispensable service in the competitive New York City legal market. For firms expanding their teams, recruiters are a vital link between the employer and prospective candidates. Legal recruiters simply have access to the largest pool of top-tier legal talent in the world. The recruitment process begins with a careful analysis of a firm’s hiring needs which leads to the creation of a job description and the strategic recruitment of top legal talent in the marketplace that fits the profile of the job. This entire search process is typically confidential and candidates would not be aware that a firm is hiring unless introduced to them by a recruiter.
Legal recruiters also screen candidates prior to submitting them to a hiring firm for consideration. This includes a full review of the candidate’s resume, consideration of the candidate’s work experience, and interviews with the candidate in person, video or telephonic. Candidates will be fully vetted, and within reason, potential conflicts of interest and background checks will be conducted. Following a thorough vetting process, and with the consent of the candidate, the legal recruiter will contact the firm with the candidate’s profile. If there is interest, firm lawyers will interview with the candidate directly. While with a firm, a legal recruiter can also help negotiate compensation, hire bonuses and other financial packages. For a successful hire, the firm pays a fee to the legal recruiter, generally 20-25% of the candidate’s first-year base salary.
Advantages of Reaching Out to Legal Recruiters
Legal recruiters provide specific placement services for attorneys, staff and law firms. Legal recruiter services often include headhunting and permanent placement services for partners, associates and staff at law firms that range from small boutiques to major international firms.
The benefits to job seekers and law firms utilizing legal recruiter services to help with the hiring of attorneys, paralegals and other staff include:
The recruiter may help you with relocating, coaching you on negotiation strategies and prepping to increase your success in landing the legal job of your dreams. The recruiter may also be available for post-placement counseling.
Many legal professionals find their legal job searches to be less stressful and experience a higher level of satisfaction with the results of the services offered for advertising and conducting the search than with the efforts of conventional executive search firms.
Selecting the Appropriate Legal Recruiter
For law firms and candidates, selecting the right recruiter comes down to their level of specialization, their track record by practice area, their firm-side recruitment experience, their knowledge of the local legal market, their network, and the general sense you get about the person. Look at their websites for a feel of their culture, and the legal and industry experience among their team members. Law firms should focus on firms that specialize in permanent placement recruiting. Search firms that place temporary attorneys usually do not have the most experienced recruiters. Temporary recruitment is more of an "on-the-job" training for recruiters, whereas permanent placement recruitment is an acquired skill. It is important for a recruiter to have in-house law firm recruitment experience. Too many search firms have former insurance salesmen or former temporary recruiters for permanent placements. For permanent placements , firms should work with recruiters who worked for law firms and understand the work, personalities, and issues involved in making effective hires. Geographic knowledge is crucial, especially in a state like New York, with so many cities and geographic distinctions (classifications) among the 190 largest hiring firms in the City and over 1,000 hiring firms in total. Recruiters should know what qualities are sought after in nearby metropolitan areas outside of New York City, if not across the country, in order to provide candidates with the best opportunities. Also, for firms with several offices in different cities, it is a big advantage for a search firm to have placement experience in all the offices, not just one of them.
The Legal Recruiting Business
Technological advances in the recruiting industry, including an increase in Applicant Tracking Software (ATS), are making it easier to sort through large applicant databases. However, the simple ATS scan is usually not enough, especially in heavily flooded practice areas. Legal tech recruiters now have to rely on social media for candidate insights that can be used to make quick assessments. Recruiters convene these days to review CVs and perform the due diligence that allows them to weed out less than desirable candidates. The end goal is to market only candidates who will have a significant impact on legal talent searches and allow the legal hiring team to focus on candidate profiles of increased interest.
Although remote work opportunities are prevalent in the majority of industries, it is rare to find a law firm that is fully equipped for a digital workforce. Remote work opportunities are popular among senior associates and equity partners who wish to have more time to devote to family responsibilities. It is also appealing to millennials to get away from 12-hour work days in a rigid cubicle setting. Therefore, in order to attract top talent, firms must focus on their work/life balance, offer remote arrangements wherever possible, and tempt candidates to come into the office by providing and promoting interesting work.
The most in demand practice areas continue to be Litigation, Corporate, Intellectual Property/Patent, Data Privacy, and Tax. With a little more than 400 Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) deals made in New York in the 1st quarter of 2019, this new M&A wave is expected to keep up with last year’s record-setting pace. The market is predicted through 2020 to be stable.
Innovative and cutting-edge practices have become highly competitive, and intellectual property lawyers should note that New York City is considered a ‘hotspot’ for tech startups. New York has now reached the second largest tech hub in the nation following Silicon Valley. This has attracted a rather remarkable pool of legal talent in the tech space. Interestingly, in 2016, over 20% of the city’s jobs were tech-related. There are nearly 100,000 IT specialists in NYC and over 10,000 IT companies. The data privacy and security demand for this group has continued to rise in 2019 as well.
The Tax practice is experiencing a boom as various factors converge to create high demand in this specialty area. These factors include the newly imposed tariffs, slow growth, and recent changes in the US tax code. Clients are turning to their lawyers for increased guidance in these areas, putting pressure on law firms to recruit more tax talent.
Closing Thoughts and Predictions
The landscape of legal recruitment in New York is an ever-evolving one, with the industry facing a number of emerging trends and challenges. Amidst an increasingly competitive marketplace, New York legal recruiters are adapting to the needs of their clients and candidates alike. New technologies, such as automation and artificial intelligence, are reshaping the way legal recruiters approach their work, allowing for more efficient processes and better client-candidate matches. However, as the industry adapts to these changes, it also faces new challenges such as the need to stay abreast of changes in legal hiring practices and in the legal market as a whole.
In looking to the future, it is likely that we will see the continued growth of legal recruitment firms in New York, as well as a more diverse pool of candidates. As the legal industry evolves , so too does the talent search process, making legal recruiters more valuable than ever. In this increasingly competitive atmosphere, New York legal recruiters must continue to find creative ways to match candidates and clients, turning the search for legal talent into a more personalized experience.
Ultimately, legal recruiters are facing a bright future. While there are certainly challenges that lie ahead, the industry has proven itself time and again to be a resilient and essential part of the legal marketplace. As the legal industry continues to innovate, recruitors must be equally proactive, finding new ways to connect with clients and candidates and stay ahead of the curve. With the right strategies and an eye on the future, legal recruiters can weather the changing landscape and continue to thrive.