At Think Legal, we sometimes advise that the best approach for our in-house legal clients is to work on a retained or exclusive basis, mostly with a transparent branded advert and an agreed recruitment process to follow.
Each client, job opportunity and project require a different approach, but generally there is a plan to:
- Take information from the legal team and the business that will allow us to properly market and sell the opportunity to passive candidates;
- Market map available and suitable candidates, and then use a mix of our database, other search platforms, referral network and advertising to identify candidates for us to interview. More often than not the best people come from out networks and existing candidates, and are reliant on us properly understanding and explaining the job and opportunity to candidates, rather than through advertising – although a branded advert will ensure full market coverage;
- Interview candidates who we deem most suitable and present a tight and strong short list with a full CV and personalised cover sheet, which crucially details what we think of the candidate and how they stack up against the job and/or person specifications;
- Arrange interview process with candidates and stakeholders; and
- Work closely with the legal team and others at the company to identify the best candidate for the post, and manage the offer, acceptance and notice with their current employer.
It’s really rewarding to partner with clients in this way, and we invest a lot of time and effort into these campaigns. Please email adamz@thinklegalrecruitment.com if you’d like to ask any questions or if you’d like to see examples of previous client branded recruitment campaigns.
So far, we have achieved a 100% successful hire rate when working on this basis with in-house legal teams, and for first in-house legal appointments (e.g. sole counsel) too. We are confident in retaining this!
