05 Aug Legal Recruiting: How to Hire the Right Candidate for Your Firm

Legal recruiting takes a massive amount of time and effort. It also requires a determined mindset to understand who the right fit for your firm is, and who doesn’t match up with your law firm’s needs. Keep reading to learn about our tips for conquering the legal hiring process and why you may be holding your firm back with a mediocre legal recruiter.

The Legal Hiring Process Impacts Billable Hours

At Lexicon, we believe having the right recruitment plan in place is essential to any streamlined law firm and even more importantly, is proven to increase billable hours.  When attorneys spend time on recruiting instead of putting in hours with their clients, that is lost time that cannot be taken back. If your law firm hiring timeline is putting pressure on your attorneys to spend more time with candidates instead of clients, it directly impacts your overall revenue as your attorneys bill less hours.

Less billable hours may not seem like a huge issue for your revenue in the moment, but the true cost of legal recruiting and hiring reveals itself in the long run. Time is spent on reviewing resumes, scheduling interviews, sitting down with candidates, preparing documents, and so much more. Law firm resources are also too often spent on second-rate legal recruiters that may not truly understand your firm’s needs and may not be committed to finding the right fit for your law firm’s employee culture.

Instead, attorneys should seek out experienced attorney headhunters who are in tune with the legal industry so they can recruit efficiently and effectively, allowing you to spend more time with clients and less time missing out on billable hours. But many are wary of outsourcing a service that is normally done in-house.

Should Law Firms Outsource Recruiting and Hiring?

In this era of ‘new law’ – the legal industry’s shift toward using technology to provide legal services in new ways – it often makes better business sense to outsource to an experienced practice management consultant. Significantly, finding the right candidate at the right time during a pandemic has turned into an even bigger roadblock for law firms who are either unprepared or unaware of the ever-evolving legal recruitment landscape.

When it comes to using the right vendor for your firm’s staffing needs, it is important not to settle for a run-of-the-mill recruiter and instead ask the right questions regarding what should be done in-house and what to outsource. When you law firm is in growth mode, you likely have many positions open and it can quickly become a full-time job to analyze your legal hiring process and run the onboarding of new hires. A skilled legal recruitment provider can handle the process for your firm and more often than not, make it more cost effective than doing it all yourself.

Lexicon has a whole list of qualifications in legal hiring and more than a decade of experience in regional, national, and international legal recruiting. As an all-inclusive legal practice management provider, we understand the nuances of the legal hiring market as well as the competition that is out there so your firm finds exactly who they need.

Building Culture at Your Law Firm

One of the most important first steps to be the best legal recruiter for your own firm is establishing a productive employee culture. Hiring a new attorney is significant, but law firm hiring and staffing doesn’t end there. Spending time and attention onboarding a new hire forms a positive first impression and emphasizes you care enough to have this hire stay for the long haul.

Allowing younger lawyers to develop critical skills in the legal industry and offering opportunities for advancement also shows that your law firm is investing in them and are investing in their future. Lexicon’s expertise in developing onboarding programs and obtaining better retention rates works to create this successful hiring scenario.

How Can Lexicon Help with Law Firm Hiring and Staffing?

With more than a decade of experience recruiting in various practice areas for law firms of several different sizes, Lexicon has the know-how to drive your law firm’s recruitment needs and establish an employee culture where your staff will flourish. We ensure employees are set up for success, while simultaneously helping you identify talented employees—including both attorneys and support staff—who will fit within your firm’s culture and help your business grow.

We manage the legal recruitment timeline from start to finish, while you can focus on what you do best: practice law.

Learn more about Lexicon’s HR and Recruiting services. Contact Lexicon for all your firm’s hiring and legal recruiting needs.