Working with Legal Recruiters as a Component of Your Job Search
Jessica Hernandez (Atkins), Principal at JLH Coaching and Consulting; Co-Founder, Law Career Center
During my eleven-year career as a practicing attorney, I often received calls from legal recruiters (aka “headhunters”) about other positions. I would sometimes send a resume over when the job sounded interesting.
But over the years, I began to learn that there were norms and strategies to working with recruiters that would make doing so more effective. And most importantly, there are things to avoid when working with recruiters. Recruiters can be a helpful part of a job search, but you need to understand how to maximize your relationships with them within the context of your job search.
This article is designed to shortcut those lessons for you and ensure that you partner with recruiters in your job search in the most effective way possible.
First, it is important to understand the nature of recruiter searches. There are two types of ways that organizations can hire a recruiter: on a retained basis or a contingent basis.
A retained search is one where the recruiter and the company sign an agreement for the recruiter to search for a candidate to fill a particular position. Retained searches are generally exclusive, meaning that the retained recruiter is the only one who has that job listing. In a retained search, payment is not contingent upon placement; instead, the recruiter is typically paid in installments leading up to a final installment when the candidate starts the job. In-house searches are usually done on a retained basis.