Ann Israel is the legal profession's Dear Abby. A New York legal recruiter since 1979, Ann is a past president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants. Advice for the Lawlorn is updated every week.

Q: Is it possible to hire a headhunter to find you a job? It seems that the legal recruiters I have encountered work only for the employers.

Dear Looking-to-Hire: Headhunters in the traditional sense are not licensed to take money from their candidates.

I believe you are thinking of employment agencies, where candidates would "hire" the agency to find a job for them and then have to pay a percentage of their first year's salary as the fee if they were hired. I am not even certain if employment agencies exist any longer but if they do, it is certainly not in the realm of the professional job market.

Maybe, maybe for entry level secretarial or administrative jobs there are fee-based jobs that still exist out there. I really don't know and I have not researched that market at all. If anyone out there knows anything about fee-based jobs or agencies, please let me know.

Search firms, on the other hand, are employer-paid operations, and the formula remains the same whether the search firm is a contingency-based firm, a retainer-based firm or a combination of the two.

Whereas it is not possible to "hire" for a fee a headhunter to find you a job, with the right kind of credentials and work experience and /or book of business, it won't take much convincing to get a recruiter to represent you and work very hard to find the right opportunity for you.

Of course, there are a lot of variables involved. If you are an associate, you not only are going to need the right pedigree and work experience as indicated above, you are also going to need a job market that is in need of your practice area and class year.

For example, in our current job market if you are a third-year BigLaw M&A corporate associate from a top tier law school, but with one or two Cs on your law school transcript who has recently been asked to leave his/her firm, you are best off trying to find something on your own rather than having a search firm fee attached to your candidacy.

A few years ago you might have been in high demand and a recruiter could have placed you because there was a shortage of M&A associates. Today there is a shortage of M&A opportunities -- truly there are not very many at all -- for associates.

Those attorneys with significant books of business are still viable candidates, no matter what the market conditions may be. Some people say, "Sure, but if I had a big book of business then I can just pick up the phone and call anyone; why would I need a headhunter?"

Well, I always look at the movie industry and compare a rainmaking partner to a major movie star such as George Clooney or Meryl Streep. When there is a script that is of great interest to them, they don't pick up the phone and call the studio directly to get the part; they call their agent and let him or her present their background for the part and do all the negotiating to get them the best deal. And that is exactly what a headhunter does for a candidate ... and more.

A headhunter researches any number of firms that might be appropriate for that individual's (or group's) practice and then, after getting consent to make the call, speaks with the practice group head or the firm's managing or hiring partner to make a presentation. And that's just the beginning of the job of the recruiter.

Do you know how to sell yourself to a hiring committee? That's what your recruiter does for a living. Obviously, once he or she gets you in the door, you have to live up to the hype. However, getting in the door is never an easy task, particularly in today's market, and a good recruiter is going to do everything is his or her power to get you an interview.

It is true that the headhunters are ultimately paid by the employers. So in a sense, yes, we work for the employers. But we do work for the candidates as well, because if we do not show our candidates opportunities that are the best opportunities for them, we end up with nothing. Even on a retained search where we are paid no matter what happens, we are under pressure to find the right person for the job -- because without a successful conclusion we know we will never work for that client again, and the candidate will also feel as if their time has been wasted.

The bottom line -- headhunters cannot be hired by candidates in the traditional sense, but for a candidate with the "right stuff," any headhunter will take him or her on as a "client" without hesitation.

Best wishes!

Sincerely,
Ann Israel
President, Ann Israel & Associates