Ten alternatives to executive search firms to recruit lawyers for your department

Headhunters account for only a small portion of all the law positions filled for legal departments, the most senior ones at that (See my post of Sept. 16, 2008: search firms with 12 references,including estimates of 10-15% of positions.). For the bulk of attorney openings, a large number of choices and approaches remain. Here are 10 of them.

1. Ads and publicity (See my post of Feb. 18, 2009: State Farm legal group uses Google AdWords; and March 17, 2006: a public announcement by Motorola as way to avoid recruitment fees.).

2. Alumni networks. The lawyers who have worked in your department may be able to steer excellent talent to you, and they know the strengths and weaknesses of the departments.

3. Employee referral programs (See my post of May 28, 2007: internal bonuses for candidates; and March 26, 2007: data on employee referrals.).

4. Internal recruiters (See my post of Sept. 16, 2008: internal recruiters.).

5. Internet recruiting (See my post of March 11, 2009: United States Postal Service.).

6. Interns and secondments (See my post of April 23, 2006: recruitment benefit of interns; and Sept. 21, 2005: recruitment of secondees and their hiring restrictions.).

7. Joint programs with law firms (See my post of Feb. 17, 2008: JPMorgan Chase; Sept.18, 2006: Citigroup and several NYC firms; Dec. 21, 2005: Lucent Technologies and Orrick Harrington; and May 23, 2007: Accenture and DLA Piper.).

8. Law school specialty programs (See my post of July 13, 2009: UTC recruits at LLM programs; and Nov. 18, 2007 #2: job fairs to attract minority candidates.).

9. Outside counsel you work with (See my post of March 23, 2009: Asian and Middle Eastern departments poach from their firms.).

10. Train and hire non-lawyer employees (See my post of Jan. 25, 2007: UPS program to develop lawyers internally.).

Even with all these methods, not to mention piles of unsolicited resumes, it is more effective, by far, to nurture and promote your own talent (See my post of May 27, 2007: views of Stefan Stern.).