Philadelphia’s most visible personal injury boutiques in recent months have leveraged their national reputations to bulk up on legal talent, poaching lawyers from district attorneys’ offices, in-house positions and high-net-worth companies and peer firms to keep up with a fresh influx of work.

But even for firms that have grown to national repute—like Kline & Specter and van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin, which have succeeded in expanding into new practice areas and leveraged online media to their headhunting advantage—challenges to recruiting staff continue to leave firm leaders scratching their heads, even as they make concessions to the demands of the current hiring market.