Filling open positions in industries that require education, certifications, and licenses can be difficult, especially if you are already busy because of a workforce shortage. Your law firm may consider turning to a legal headhunter to find you the best candidates while you work on day-to-day operations.

What Are Headhunters?

The term "headhunter" is used to describe a person specializing in searching for and recruiting people in a specific career field for another party. A legal headhunter specializes in law and legal careers, so they may be recruiting lawyers, paralegals, or other investigators to work in a law office or firm with an attorney or a group of attorneys. 

The job can be time-consuming and challenging because the legal headhunter may be starting a search from scratch and looking to job recruiting websites or professional networking sites. Often, a lot of time goes into locating potential clients and then looking at them in more detail to see if they are a fit for the client. 

If the potential hire is a good match, the headhunter will send the information about them to the law office for review. The human resources team or the attorney may turn down the recommendation, and if that is the case, the headhunter will continue the search. 

First Contact

When a legal headhunter is trying to recruit someone for a legal job, they will often contact the potential hire first and talk to them about their background and job history, education, and any required certifications. The idea is for the headhunter to weed out anyone who is not a good fit before recommending anyone to the law firm. 

This prescreening can be a short list of questions, or it can be a formal interview, depending on what the law firm and the legal headhunter have agreed upon. Some law firms that are looking for top candidates and are willing to pay top dollar for them will sometimes headhunt all over the country and maybe even the world to find the right person for the job. 

Headhunting Services

There are some large headhunting services that provide services to several industries. Working with these services may generate candidates faster because of the number of people working on the search for you. While this can be advantageous for a large law firm, it is sometimes easier to work and communicate directly with a single legal headhunter.

Talking directly with the person doing the searching allows you to discuss your needs with them, so there is no question about what you are looking for. It can also make it easier for the headhunter to contact you and ask questions when they see a potential hire that may not have as much experience in the industry as you requested.