The Benefits of Using a Legal Search Consultant

From unearthing the top candidates to salary negotiations, legal search consultants can help you navigate the hiring process and guide you through the most important decisions.

In today’s digital age, many corporate legal departments find themselves wondering if they have all of the tools needed to conduct a search for legal candidates. Between LinkedIn, job boards, and other networking sites, it can’t be that hard, right?

If you’re truly interested in finding and attracting top-tier legal talent, then you may want to rethink that approach.

Adding members to your legal team can affect every aspect of your business, and the people that you hire can mean company-wide success or failure. And hiring for in-house legal roles can be particularly challenging for several reasons.

It is often a smart and profitable decision to work with legal search consultants to help you find and hire candidates—and this is why:

1.    They are invested in lasting success

Legal search consultants build their brand upon the relationships that they cultivate and repeat clients are the largest source of a consultant’s business. Therefore, they are intrinsically motivated to fully understand and internalize the needs of both the job seeker and employer, and only present candidates with the right combination of experience, skills, and character traits for every position. Successful placements that work out long term are vital to a successful search consultancy.

2.    They offer quality assurance and credibility

As the hiring company, you can rest assured knowing that the candidates being presented have been strongly vetted and meet the most stringent requirements of the role. Top search consultants serve hiring companies with nothing but the highest level of integrity. When a trusted consultant presents a candidate, you’ll know that this person is worth closely reviewing.

3.    They have the deep industry knowledge

Good legal search consultants arguably have a broader range of specific knowledge than just about anyone else in the industry, and their expertise can be invaluable—especially when hiring for an in-house role or when creating a new role within an organization. In both of these situations, it can be nearly impossible to define a legal position without a deep level of industry expertise, let alone know what to look for in a viable candidate.

Legal search consultants are industry experts and understand the needs of corporate legal departments. Their deeply rooted knowledge makes them equipped to assess your needs, define new roles, redefine existing ones, and ultimately find the best candidates for a very specific job.

4.    They are very selective

Although legal search consultants have untethered access to all types of legal candidates, they are generally very selective when it comes to choosing who they will represent. They do not limit their assessment to a candidate’s education or current employment status; instead, they invest a substantial amount of time understanding the motivations, professional goals, strengths, weaknesses, and qualifications of the legal candidates that they present.

Again, legal search consultants are focused on creating long-lasting and successful matches—and unless a candidate meets a consultant’s very rigid criteria, they will not be presented to you for consideration.

Search consultants are also expert head-hunters. Because they do not limit their search to candidates who are actively looking for opportunities, they can unearth and develop relationships with more top-tier talent, even those who are gainfully employed and not necessarily looking for a new job.

5.    They take you through the entire process

A legal search consultant’s job does not stop once a role is defined and viable candidates are selected. They will assist you in developing the right types of interview questions and debrief with you after each interview to help “decode” your candidate’s remarks. They can help you make a final hiring decision, assist with salary negotiations, and even see to it that onboarding is organized and thorough. You will have a partner by your side from beginning to end—to the extent you need it—further ensuring a positive experience for both you and a new hire.

Ultimately, legal search consultants are strictly focused on aligning the needs of hiring organizations with the qualifications and interests of the candidates they represent. They are there to help both parties find mutually beneficial and long-term professional success—but the focus is always on filling a client’s open position with the best possible candidate.

Carrington Legal Search has a twenty-year track record of making hires that stick - 75% of our searches result in candidates who stay 5 years or longer and are continuously promoted. Discover the difference working with Carrington Legal Search can make to your law department.  Get in touch at 512-627-7467 or email carrie@carringtonlegal.com.