It’s no secret that the corporate world has irreversibly changed. Law firms are no longer simply providing a service. Today they must equip their business with the right talent, technology, and innovative mindset to respond to their customer’s increasingly diverse and often more specialised needs.
In an environment in both NZ and Australia where the unemployment rates remain stubbornly low, lawyers with the skills and experience firms are looking for have more bargaining power and freedom to consider new opportunities.
We are seeing lawyers take greater control of their careers. They expect more flexibility, independence, and clear paths of progression. They will simply walk away if their current role doesn’t create the lifestyle they want. A few examples of this include the rise of the niche micro firms in Australia, the increase in “slashie” roles (people working full-time while juggling another business), and the findings of the latest Legal Firm of Choice Survey showing that 27% of respondents are making plans to leave their current employers.
In this market, a reactive approach to recruiting has resulted in law firms paying well above market rates for talent that is available, rather than the best quality or fit for the team. There are also often time lags between an employee leaving and a new hire starting that can directly impact the wellbeing of other employees – and ultimately lead to further resignations. In addition, recruiters are charging larger and larger fees, on some occasions as high as 25% of a starting salary.
At Insource we don’t foresee any change in the current market shortage for lawyers, particularly in the four to six year PQE level.
Our data shows the gap between the number of offshore specialist and senior lawyers returning versus those leaving Australia and New Zealand continues to widen.
In our 15+ years’ experience with search recruitment we have seen firms make the mistake of placing recruitment on hold twice – firstly post the GFC in 2008 and then briefly after the outbreak of COVID in 2020. Many of those firms continue to scramble for quality talent today.
In the ongoing war for talent, it is vital that firms identify and pipeline lawyers if they are to stand a chance of filling roles with quality talent.
Insource is uniquely placed to support law firms with its powerful searchable database of over 100,000+ up to date lawyer profiles and extensive industry knowledge. Insource empowers those charged with identifying and hiring talent to take back control of recruitment – keeping partners happy and increasing retention by hiring the right people from the outset.
The power of the Pipeline
The greatest power of Insource is its ability to pipeline (or create a prequalified list of lawyers whose drivers and timeframes for a move are visible) and who can be part of your future hiring strategy.
A pipeline allows you to establish and maintain regular contact with those lawyers and it provides an established talent pool ready for when you have a role to fill, or an opportunity to grow the team. It enables you to develop a relationship gradually and discuss what your firm offers well ahead of time, rather than desperately trying to attract talent by offering an obscene, above market salary.
Every day our subscribers share their stories of conversations with lawyers they have discovered on Insource with the ideal mix of skills and experience, but who were virtually invisible on LinkedIn.
Recruitment from just $120/hr
If reaching out directly to lawyers is not for you, or you simply don’t have the time, Insource’s new freelance recruitment service is now available.
Handpicked by Insource founder and former leading Australasian search recruiter, Jenn Little, these freelance recruiters are the best in the business. They can help with any part or all of the recruitment process from refining a list to prospecting lawyers for a live role through to managing the end to end recruitment process in your Insource activity tracker.
This is a commission free service. Freelance recruiters are self-employed and they work on a flat hourly rate of $120 +GST so you only pay for their time. Most firms are now paying at least $10K in referral fee hires – equivalent to 80 hours of freelance recruiter assistance.
When you engage an Insource freelance recruiter all the information generated from their conversations with lawyers remains with your subscribing firm or company, on the Insource platform. This puts an end to law firms paying for recruitment companies to carry out intelligence gathering which the firms can never access. Instead, this crucial information about future talent stays with the law firm and can be used to inform business and retention strategies. But most importantly you can start using it to build those crucial talent relationships.
To discuss how Insource could help your firm innovate, adapt and win the war for talent, contact us today to book a demo.
