Should I Use a Legal Recruiter (Headhunter)?

By: Kandice Thorn

Each year, I receive several inquiries from students and alumni regarding the use of legal recruiters to find jobs, so I thought it would be worth devoting a few words on the blog to this topic. On the surface, it seems like an attractive option: "A legal recruiter is someone who is going to go out and find me a job.  How easy is that?" It's not so simple, as it turns out.

Here is how the world of legal recruiting works: a legal recruiter finds a candidate and brings the candidate's resume to a prospective employer who is looking to fill a position. If the employer hires that candidate, the employer pays the recruiter a big fee, typically a percentage of the successful candidate's salary. It is not cheap for the firm to hire an employee this way, and employers don't like doing it unless it is necessary to fill the position. When is it necessary? When the position is such that they are not getting a lot of resumes in the normal course.

As a rule, firms do not use legal recruiters to hire students, and that includes LL.M. students. Law firms receive hundreds of resumes from law students each year. If they are looking for international students or LL.M. students, they can go to ISIP (the job fair held annually for LL.M. students at NYU) or reach out to the law schools directly. They do not need to pay recruiters to hire students, so they won't.  It simply doesn't make good business sense.

For alumni with more experience, some can benefit from using a good, reputable legal recruiter. However, even then you should be very cautious. Keep in mind that once a recruiter has submitted your resume to a law firm, that firm is bound by the finders' fee agreement for a set period of time, which could disadvantage you against other candidates who apply directly and do not cost the firm anything.

Legal recruiters' "bread and butter" tends to be moving law firm associates from one big firm to another big firm. If you are currently at a large law firm in the U.S. (and you have been there for at least a few years) and you are looking to move to another large firm, you might consider using a recruiter. In that case, do your research to find a good, reputable recruiter to work with. Ask for references and/or ask a friend for a referral. Find out where he or she has placed people before. Look for someone with several years of experience.

Remember that legal recruiters fill only 3% of available jobs, and those jobs are very rarely junior level and never entry level type positions. Additionally, small and many midsize employers do not have the budget to use legal recruiters, so relying on a recruiter will close off many opportunities. Direct contact with employers is almost always your best bet.