Law firms of all sizes depend on associates with energy, grit and dedication. If it’s your job to seek out people who fit that description—as the chief talent officer at a large operation, an HR manager at a mid-sized firm or the founder of a boutique—the simplest method is to take part in the traditional 2L recruitment process. You’ll meet dozens of eager-eyed law students who you can interview, hire and ultimately train up into hard-charging colleagues. Yet that pipeline, on its own, has its limits. It can’t replace a gifted mid-level associate who quits without warning. Nor can it add immediate firepower when you suddenly land a major file. In those scenarios, you’ll need to tap into the lateral market.
Unfortunately, the best associates—the ones with sought-after skills and battle-tested experience—have plenty of suitors. Whoever employs them today is likely working hard to keep them for the long term, promising steady pay increases and a clear path into the partnership. It’s safe to assume, meanwhile, that recruiters regularly approach them with tantalizing offers to jump ship and join one of your competitors. How, in that hostile environment, can you stand out?
First, the obvious: you have to build a workplace that appeals to junior talent. Then you have to credibly promote—to potential recruits, to connections on LinkedIn—your firm as truly wonderful. What follows is a practical guide on how to complete both objectives, so that your firm can successfully attract the industry’s top junior talent.
Recent survey data sheds light on what Canadian associates look for in a position. The principal priority, perhaps unsurprisingly, is money. If you hope to lure an associate to your team, you’ll need to offer that person a competitive salary. That’s a virtual certainty.
But it’s not the only factor. Next on the list of associate priorities is work-life balance. This is a tricky one. The legal industry tends to impose onerous billable-hour targets on its associate class, in part to afford the high salaries that top talent demand. At the very least, though, you can provide associates with the flexibility to work from home a couple of days a week. One study found that job seekers were 64 percent more likely to consider an employer if it had a hybrid-work policy. A corollary benefit is that 43 percent of hybrid workers reported an increase in productivity, often because it cut down on time spent commuting to the office.
An important caveat: some associates honestly value work-life balance over compensation. It’s increasingly common to let those people take on a reduced workload in exchange for a below-market salary. Firms that offer this arrangement enjoy strong retention and job satisfaction among the junior ranks.
Associates also crave a transparent and nurturing professional culture. You can satisfy that hunger, in large part, by resisting the industry’s fondness for secrecy. Put in place clear policies that outline how your firm handles compensation, yearend bonus payouts and partnership appointments. Associates value that level of candour. When it comes to mentorship, there’s one surefire way to impress junior talent: instruct the senior lawyers on your team to provide detailed feedback on assignments, even when it’s tempting to devote that time to billable work. No one should overhaul an associate’s factum without explaining the reason behind each revision.
To attract people to your terrific workplace, however, you have to proudly tell people about it. When you speak with prospective hires—in job interviews or at informal lunch meetings—take advantage of the chance to show off. Mention your hybrid-work policy. Describe the impartial metrics that your firm relies on to calculate annual pay raises. Lay out the mechanics of your fair-minded bonus structure. Talk about the timeline for promotion to income partner. Immodesty, in this scenario, is a virtue.
Your online brand is another powerful recruitment tool. A recent study found that young workers, when considering a job, routinely scope out the organization’s website and social-media presence. Step one is to draft the careers page on your website with care. Highlight the firm’s commitment to mentorship and the transparency of its partnership track. On your firm’s LinkedIn page, aim to publish a fresh post each month on a topic that might appeal to a junior lawyer: the value of hybrid work, the secret to a successful lateral move, the looming impact of legal AI. The idea is to demonstrate your bona fides as a thoughtful employer at the helm of an operation that an associate would love to land.
Of course, the savviest associates won’t join your team solely on the basis of what you say in job interviews or post on LinkedIn. You can expect them to contact your past and current associates—perhaps by inviting them out for an afternoon coffee—to ask about day-to-day life at the firm. If one of your partners likes to assign weekend-ruining work on the sunniest Fridays of the summer, that tendency will surely come up in conversation. If you throw a tantrum whenever an associate leaves to accept an in-house position, your temper is unlikely to remain a secret. In law, gossip travels fast. The lesson is simple: your firm has to treat people well and live up to its ideals.
Although the job market is hyper-competitive, it’s also brimming with ready-to-move talent. Indeed, a Deloitte survey found that 31 percent of young professionals plan to switch jobs within the next two years. Most of those respondents hope to land a role with the kind of benefits that we’ve talked about throughout this article: higher pay, work-life balance, the opportunity to learn new skills. Your central task is to convince potential recruits that you’ll consistently deliver on those priorities. Then you can sit back and wait for the legal profession’s top associates to come to you.
Andrea Yu is a Toronto-based freelance journalist and a contributing editor to Toronto Life. She writes about business, culture and law.
Illustration by Sam Island.
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