Whether you own, manage, or work in a law firm, you know every team environment has unique qualities. The diversity of law firms across Canada is one of the aspects of our work we love most; it means we have to find new and creative solutions to different challenges every day.
To account for this diversity, we follow a specific set of processes that help us thoroughly understand how we can best collaborate with different law firms. Let’s look at how we approach new and exciting challenges when hiring for legal positions in law firms or within a company’s legal department.
Many Canadian law firms have been with us for years or even decades, which means we are mostly familiar with their goals, needs, and growth patterns. However, we know that in any business, trajectories can change and environments need to adapt. With that in mind, we always take a few items into account before starting the recruitment process.
With so many areas of practice and expertise in law, it’s important to ensure we understand exactly which role and set of responsibilities needs to be filled.
Making a great hire means ensuring there’s a good fit with an existing team, not only in terms of skills and knowledge, but in terms of culture. We help firms strategize how to fill a specific role within the company, while also fulfilling the cultural needs of the firm.
There’s nothing like a full, well-rounded team that works together. We know the immense importance of support staff in legal offices, including assistants and managers. Our expertise and contacts in the industry allow us to source qualified candidates for nearly any position related to legal duties.
We also like to talk to our clients about their long-term goals and find solutions that can help them grow strategically. For example, we’ll ask what they would like their teams to look like in several years, allowing us to help them decide how they can best hire externally and promote from within.
Once we have a clear understanding of a law firm’s goals and needs, it’s time to look at the more technical aspects of recruitment. Let’s look at four important considerations in our process:
It’s important that everyone involved in the hiring process be on the same page. Job analyses and position profiling allow us to create a cohesive, agreed-upon understanding of what a job requires in terms of skills, knowledge, behavioural traits, and more. This also helps us communicate the requirements to potential candidates so we can connect with highly qualified people and showcase the company’s benefits.
Thanks to having been in the industry for many years, we are lucky to have a continuous influx of great candidates, some of whom we have helped strategically pursue their career goals over years or decades. We keep in touch with many potential candidates, but we also source new candidates to ensure our clients receive a broad selection for the position they’re offering. All of this comes from first understanding the specific needs, culture, and goals of a law firm or legal department.
Many positions will require certain skills, including hard skills and technical skills. We’re able to provide these types of assessments for candidates based on the position requirements. In turn, this allows law firms to make more data-driven hiring decisions.
Once we’ve compiled a list of the top candidates for the position and pre-vetted them through interviews, our team will walk through our interests and concerns for each candidate with the hiring decision-makers. This can provide important context for a decision. For example, a candidate may not be proficient in a specific technical skill, but could be capable of learning that skill quickly. These types of conversations allow us to work with a law firm to ensure they get the right fit based on many types of considerations.
Our team is well-versed in how to negotiate beneficial terms for candidates and law firms alike. We seek the best fit throughout the process, including when it comes to understanding exactly how we can ensure everyone feels valued in the relationship.
We are grateful to be able to support Canadian law firms and legal departments as they grow and develop. If your organization has shifted goals, we’d love to talk through the current legal HR landscape. Call us or send us a message so we can book a time to walk through some important considerations that can help you hire the right team for your goals.
Or, if you’re a candidate looking for a great position with a growing Canadian law firm, you can browse through our current positions and apply.
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