Articles From the Team

So what do you do if you cannot find the “perfect” candidate to fill your vacancy, Part 1

Its old news now but without a shadow of a doubt, the recovery is on!

Since January BCL Legal have seen a 200% increase on new instructions in the Midlands market for transactional solicitors. This means that there are around 3 times as many opportunities for corporate, commercial, intellectual property, construction, commercial property, banking and information technology solicitors as there were at the end of December 2013.

When compared to the amount of opportunities in these disciplines in March 2013 the increase becomes almost incalculable.

The effects of the recession are now being felt in a candidate shortage. People who were made redundant left the law in droves, finding their skills were highly prized elsewhere. Trainees were not retained into transactional disciplines and numbers of training contracts were cut. When this is applied with the sheer volumes of recruitment going on in the market, it makes it very unlikely that any recruiting Partner will find the “perfect” candidate to fit into their team.

As the leading legal recruiter, with the largest permanent legal recruitment team in the Midlands BCL Legal have had a number of conversations with client law firms recently about the difficulties in recruiting. Many of our clients are focussed on talking to us about how strong their brand is, the excellence of their work and how well regarded they are as an employer. Whilst these are all important factors, the true difference between those that are recruiting successfully and those that are not is the ability to think outside the box when considering candidates.

If the perfect candidate does enter the market, the chances are that there will be a massive amount of competition for their services. As fantastic as the culture/ work in your firm may be it is hard for a candidate to argue with cold hard cash. Some law firms are now prepared to pay well above market rate, when offered the opportunity to secure the “perfect” transactional lawyer.

As a recruiting Partner you also need to understand how that candidate has entered the market. If they have come through a genuine contingent recruiter like BCL Legal then you can be certain that they are active or semi active in considering new opportunities. They want to leave their current employer and they want to work for you. If the candidate has come through headhunting/ search and select it is possible that the candidate is quite happy in their job and therefore they are expecting you to buy them. Obviously, if they are perfectly happy in their job the chances of a successful counter offer are very high.

If securing the “perfect” candidate is akin to finding a real live flying unicorn, what can you do to fill your role.

For further information please contact BCL Legal or call us on 0845 241 0933.