Do legal recruiters charge attorneys for placement?
Legal recruiters don't charge you a dollar for placement. The hiring law firm or company pays our fee once you're hired, which you can see in how legal recruiting works.
We get paid by the employer to fill their opening, so you get market guidance and search help without an invoice.
A good recruiter keeps your search confidential, and a good recruiter names the hiring firm to you before sending anything. More on that in will my firm find out.
How do legal recruiters get paid?
Legal recruiters get paid in one of two ways. In contingency search, the employer pays a placement fee only after a candidate accepts an offer and starts work. If the firm doesn't hire, they owe nothing.
In retained search, the employer pays part of the fee up front to run an exclusive search. In our experience, retained searches are most common for general counsel openings and other senior in-house roles.
The fee is commonly a percentage of first-year pay, figured on base salary or total cash compensation depending on the agreement. You pay none of it.
When is it legitimate for a recruiter to charge you?
Recruiter placement fees charged to candidates are rarely legitimate. The FTC says legitimate placement firms don't typically charge job candidates, because the hiring company pays them to find qualified people. If an agency asks you for an upfront fee or a registration charge to submit your résumé, say no.
Don't confuse a recruiter with a career coach or a résumé writer. A recruiter is compensated by employers to fill specific legal positions, while a résumé writer or career coach provides an advisory service you pay for directly.
Some states regulate this directly. In New York, according to the New York Attorney General, licensed employment agencies can charge applicants only under a written contract and only after a referral leads to a hire, and registration-only fees are not allowed.
Does using a recruiter hurt your chances?
In our experience, working with a recruiter doesn't hurt your chances.
Your personal network still counts. Use your network alongside a recruiter, but don't let 2 people submit you to the same firm.
What happens if two recruiters submit you to the same firm?
You can work with more than one recruiter, but track every submission. If 2 recruiters send you to the same employer, they'll dispute who introduced you, and in our experience, firms commonly credit whichever recruiter submitted you first with your permission.
Give consent in writing before each submission, and keep a personal log of where your materials go. The NALSC Code of Ethics requires member search consultants to obtain an attorney's express prior consent before submitting their résumé to an employer. Under the code, member recruiters must also keep confidential what an attorney shares in confidence, subject to the search firm's duties to the employer. The code binds NALSC members only.
Confirm each target firm in writing before anything is sent.
Attorneys assume the more recruiters they talk to, the better. In reality, focus on building relationships and communicating well with the recruiters who specialize in law. There are plenty of them.