PROMPTS FOR RECRUITING OTHER LAWYERS

Persuading someone to join your organisation as an employee presupposes that you have concluded that there is a coherent and fulfilling portfolio of work for an in-house lawyer to undertake for a foreseeable period of time. Simply having too much to do is not a sufficient reason for recruitment.

Before embarking on recruitment, you should spend time deciding what you are offering, what you are seeking and how you are going to select.

These prompts have been compiled to give you some ideas. They have worked well, but you should not feel obliged to follow them. Some of the suggestions merit discussion.

What is on offer?

• Your strategy for legal services
  
• A portfolio which will challenge and fulfil
  
• An environment which will motivate and support
  
• A management philosophy which will encourage and develop

What is sought?

• A lawyer with defined legal skills
  
• A person with the level of experience needed
  
• An individual with requisite competencies or the potential to develop them
  
• Someone who you are eager to have as a colleague

How to select?

• Recruitment agency remit
  
• Screening criteria
  
• Interview and assessment process
  
• Offer
  

1. STRATEGY FOR LEGAL SERVICES

You need to be able to describe to candidates what you have formulated and intend to implement as a strategy. It is worth summarising in a couple of pages:

What is the in-house legal function going to concentrate on, both in terms of the legal services it provides and the legal expertise it will have?

What are you going to use external advisers for?

What should business colleagues be encouraged and expected to do?
You need to be able to explain the level of support for the strategy from different client areas.

2. THE INTENDED PORTFOLIO

You need to be able to describe the make-up of the intended portfolio, to optimise the challenges of serving particular client areas and finding solutions to legal issues. You have to consider how willing you will be to hand-over clients with whom you enjoy working to the new recruit and how tempted you will be to 'dump' on the new recruit. It is preferable to phase what the new recruit embarks on, so that adequate attention can be paid to induction and integration. How the portfolio is managed will depend on the management philosophy you adopt - see section 4 below. You need to explain that portfolios have to evolve, especially as a team grows.

3. MOTIVATING ENVIRONMENT

You need to think about the areas where there are constraints on the environment you can create or influence.

• The physical work environment work
• Support staff
  
• Other support services
  
• Staff policies and attitudes
  
• Grading structure and benefits packages

Take early action to grapple with those constraints, so that you know how much flexibility you have. Form a view on how you will present them positively to candidates, not to deter them, but to make sure that they have realistic expectations.

One of your biggest issues is likely to be grading and benefits. The recommendation is to try to keep the number of grades as small as possible, the pay bands as wide as possible and the importance to staff of the grading structure as low as possible!

4. YOUR MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY

Decide what you expect from members of the team in terms of visibility, autonomy, accountability and contribution to smooth running. Consider what processes or tools you need to put in place - a number of areas are listed below. It may be easier to establish them and adapt them as the department grows, rather than hoping they will miraculously evolve. Some of them may require a minimum level of proficiency in certain software packages - this should be explained to candidates, with reassurance that training will be given.

• Work programme
  
• Best practice standards
  
• Diary management / absences
  
• File management
  
• Access to and use of reference materials
  
• Standards of document production
  
• Purchase of stationery and equipment
  
• Access to IT support
  
• Hiring external lawyers
  
• Dealing with information suppliers
  
• Attending training and conferences
  
• Travelling - Bookings / Expenses

You need to think carefully about how you will behave as a manager. There are lots of theories which you can dip into. Do remember that it is much harder to behave in a way which is different to your natural inclination. There are some extreme illustrations listed below:

'Theory X'
If I did not drive my people constantly, they would not get on with their work
I sometimes have to fire someone or berate someone to encourage others
Leaders have to lead by taking all key decisions
I find that most people are unambitious and must be forced to raise their sights
I keep my distance from my team since it is necessary for effective command

'Theory Y'
If somebody falls down on the job, I first ask myself what I did wrong
I should sometimes take a back seat at meetings and let others take the lead
If I ask someone for their opinion on an issue, I try to do as they suggest
People should appraise their bosses as well as be appraised by them
Anyone can have creative, innovative ideas if they are encouraged

5. LEGAL SKILLS SOUGHT

Define what you are after in terms of legal expertise - putting together a job description is a good discipline for this and sections 6 and 7 below.

6. EXPERIENCE NEEDED

Define the level of experience you are looking for, not just in terms of PQE, but the sort of situations and transactions which have been handled and the level of responsibility assumed.

7. COMPETENCIES

The selection of competencies should be driven by business needs. They are not something for internal concoction. Examples of some which might be important:

Customer Focus
Confidence and Conviction
Impact and Influence
Organisational Awareness
Conceptual Thinking

Be ready to explain the importance you attach to development, to setting objectives and appraisals.

8. ENTHUSIASM

If you can't get excited about any of the candidates, better not to make anyone an offer!
Remember:
It is not necessary for everyone on the team to like you, but they must like working for you
It is not necessary to like everyone on the team, but you must like having them in the team

9. RECRUITMENT AGENCY REMIT

Using a recruitment agency will save you time, if not money. Select one which is prepared to run the process as you would prefer, rather than shoehorning you into what is convenient for them.
Consider giving them an information pack to send to those interested in the vacancy, summarising key points from 1 to 7 above and explaining what the selection process will entail.
Agree with them what percentage of the applicants they should aim to meet and what criteria they will use for screening. Get the agency to ask the candidates to bring a couple of hand-written sheets on which they describe specific episodes where they have demonstrated communication skills, analytical skills and influencing skills. Ask them to send no more than a dozen files containing what the screened candidates actually submitted (c.v., covering letter, hand-written submission) and the agency's comments on their candidacy.
Select in consultation with the agency three candidates for interview and assessment.

10. SCREENING CRITERIA

The agency will have some ideas on this, but make sure that the matching of applications to specifications is not too slavish or too sloppy. Think about rating the following:
Pedigree - was the candidate trained in a truly professional stable
Presentation - what do the c.v. and covering letter tell you
Achievement - what have they managed to do, rather than how long have they been doing it

11. INTERVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

Set the shortlisted candidates an assignment to do - the original information pack should mention this. Something which works well is to ask them to prepare a presentation of no more than 15 minutes to half a dozen business people to brief them on a particular situation or transaction. They should be told to spend no more than 2 hours on the preparation. Explain that you and several colleagues will be attending the presentation as supposed business people. The objective is to see how well they can distil and deliver the key points which need to be made.

Allow about an hour for the interview, which should be two way! Allow 40 minutes for the assessments - the prepared one and then an unprepared one. For the unprepared one, describe a scenario which involves getting into difficulty with clients and ask the candidate what he or she would do. Invite them to share lunch or a drink with potential future colleagues.

At the interview, don't forget to sell the job. Probe into what they have done and what makes them tick or not. 'Describe a good day'. 'Describe a bad day'.
Depending on what role, if any, your HR function has played in the process, share with them the details of the shortlisted candidates, your assessment and your preferred choice. Use this session to sort out any issues over terms to be offered.

12. OFFER

Once you have selected your preferred candidate, call them to establish how keen they are on the job and, assuming they are, to outline the offer you have in mind. It's tempting to delegate this to the agency, but there is no substitute for direct contact. Invite them to react to the agency if they would prefer to discuss any aspects with an intermediary.

Once you are relatively confident that the offer will be accepted, make sure a formal offer is sent, with something which records your enthusiasm for them joining. Make sure that when conditions, such as satisfactory medical or references, are met, the new recruit is informed.

Your HR department may have a process for welcoming a new recruit and dealing with admin issues. Make sure that you know what it covers. Shortly before the start day, fix what time you expect to greet your new colleague.

Recruitment is just the beginning. Motivating and managing other lawyers is a challenge. Planning how you are going to do this and having the right processes in place is critical. The time you spend with a new recruit in their early days will be time well spent, as long as it is structured.

GOOD LUCK

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