The reputation of a law firm is built as much on its people as on the work it does. It is therefore paradoxical that, while law firms recognise the need to find exceptional individuals when making appointments at partner and assistant or associate levels, they tend to use a system of recruiting that rarely offers them the best candidates in the market, or good value for money.
The majority of legal recruitment is undertaken on a contingency fee basis – in other words, firms are charged a success fee by a recruiting agency for every candidate placed. This method raises two major issues. First, it results in law firms receiving a large number of unsolicited approaches from recruitment consultants who merely re-format and then speculatively send out any CV they receive in order to ensure that they were the first to introduce the prospective candidate and accordingly secure the commission. Secondly, where a law firm has a stated vacancy, recruitment agencies will often send in details of any candidates currently on their books whose experience might only vaguely match the job description.
