| For law firms to handle the recruitment process on | | | | Top-tier Clients |
| their own and achieve the best results, they usually | | | | If your law-firm is in the top tier of its practice areas, it |
| need to employ a recruiting department. But while | | | | only makes sense to consult with a legal service that |
| some law firms handle their own recruiting, other firms | | | | has a client list whose credentials match your own. As |
| choose to save money by relying on legal placement | | | | anyone in the legal professional well knows, there is a |
| services for their staffing needs. If your law firm | | | | big difference between legal personnel that have the |
| currently requires staffing, it won't be hard to find a | | | | right credentials and legal personnel that can translate |
| legal staffing service. But finding the best legal staffing | | | | those credentials into top performance. By hiring a legal |
| service is another matter. Because most large law | | | | service provider whose client list bespeaks excellence, |
| firms consistently experience staffing needs, finding an | | | | your chances of wasting time interviewing potential |
| elite legal placement service that offers a variety of | | | | employees that don't meet your standard of |
| staffing on an ongoing basis should receive priority | | | | excellence is significantly decreased. |
| among a law firm's staffing concerns. Below, we list | | | | Extensive Screening Process |
| four characteristics that define an elite legal services | | | | While the idea is to hire a person with the expertise, |
| company in terms of staffing. | | | | you also need to hire someone that has the right |
| Professional Expertise | | | | personality. While an attorney with a solipsistic |
| Just as physicians don't necessarily oversee physician | | | | disposition might make excellent fodder for the |
| placement services, neither are legal placement | | | | average crime movie, hiring such an attorney could |
| services necessarily overseen by attorneys and | | | | seriously compromise your firm's morale, cause key |
| paralegals. But in order to have insight into the needs | | | | team members to seek employment elsewhere and |
| of particular law firms, it only makes sense that | | | | cause your firm to compete within itself instead of |
| veteran legal professionals would manage a legal | | | | against other firms. Putting legal personnel through an |
| services provider. While having an academic | | | | extensive screening process amounts to more than |
| knowledge of the legal industry may be sufficient to | | | | verifying their credentials and past work performance; |
| provide competent staffing, the experiential knowledge | | | | it also means evaluating them as people. In order for |
| that comes from being a practicing attorney or | | | | new employees to sync with your law firm's culture, |
| paralegal provides of insight that staffing companies | | | | they need more than the right resume; they need the |
| run by business professionals don not possess. | | | | right personality. |