Identifying the Best Candidates for Your Company’s Law Department

What character traits you should look for in a candidate?

Business is booming, and it’s time to start expanding your in-house legal team to help maintain the workload. Adding attorneys to your team will allow you to free up time to be proactive instead of reactive.

The big question is, how do you select the person that is best aligned with your current team and company values? 

While education and relevant work experience are certainly important factors when looking for the right in-house counsel, these minimum requirements are not enough to predict whether or not he or she is the right fit.

Here are a few professional traits that will help you identify the “A” players for your in-house counsel:

They align with the company culture

Even the most well-versed and educated lawyer won’t succeed, if they’re not a cultural fit. Remember, this is not someone who will be tucked away in their office with their head down and solely focused on paperwork all day long.

Your in-house counsel should be comfortable moving about the office and interacting with employees at all levels throughout the company. They will be meeting with all kinds of people, from high-level stakeholders to administrative personnel and everyone in between, and should aim to understand everyone’s role and the specific issues that they face.

This type of interaction leads to a thorough understanding of how the company works and allows your in-house counsel to give the most relevant advice on current and potential matters. In instances like these, it helps a great deal when the person in this role actually gets along with the folks that he or she is working so closely with.

The most effective way of ensuring that a potential candidate aligns with the company culture is to make sure that they believe in a strong set of core values. If these values are the governing manner in which the company operates, then it shouldn’t be hard to filter out those who are a poor cultural fit.

They are a rockstar communicator

Since your in-house counsel will spend a substantial amount of time mixing with employees at all levels, it is highly important that he or she has a keen sense of how to communicate with them, both in writing and also face to face. This person must be perceptive enough to understand different communication styles and then tailor his or her approach to each audience.

For example, your in-house counsel will be responsible for translating legal “speak” to those who may not innately understand it, along with making clear recommendations based on that information. If your lawyer is not able to succinctly get his or her point across, you may be left with gaping opportunities for missteps.

They place value on mutual honesty

These are arguably the most important character traits of your next hire. This attorney should be less focused on people pleasing than being adamant about honestly relaying the risks involved with important decisions – and advising on the best course of action.

They are even-keeled yet proactive

Your new counsel needs to have the ability to distinguish between actual crises and standard legal issues. If this person is reactionary and turns run-of-the-mill legal matters into emergency fire drills on a regular basis, your existing team will quickly lose trust in this person and future recommendations will fall on deaf ears.

On the other hand, if the new addition to your team is able to keep his or her cool and use analytical skills to conclude that certain matters are not reasons to sound the alarm, then there is time to design a deliberate response and communicate it at the appropriate time.

They are adaptable

Your new counsel will need to be able to handle a variety of day-to-day legal matters with grace, expertise, and an open mind. It’s important that they are comfortable using a variety of resources when situations arise that require a more specialized approach. The best candidates need to be comfortable asking for advice when certain legal matters appear that are outside the scope of their expertise.

Hiring additional in-house counsel is a stressful and time-consuming process. The counsel filling this role could have a direct impact on every single person within your organization, so it is imperative that the candidates that you are seriously considering are thoroughly vetted – and ultimately a good fit for the company and law department.

Use these above core traits as a measuring stick when reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates. And remember: if the essential experience, knowledge, and education are in place, it is the soft skills that they possess which will help them stand out from the crowd.

Learn more about how to place the right candidate for your in-house legal representation.