Posts
Hello! When I originally decided to return from my blogging sabatical, I didn't have anything in particular to say. I was just going to wish the legal community a happy holidays and spread some optimism for 2009. Then I came across the article below. Written by Peter Kalis who is the managing partner of K&L Gates, I think its sentiments are worthy. And during this downturn, I think the message is something all the AmLaw 200 firms should remember. Enjoy the read and I will see everyone in 2009. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!
'U.S. News' list: a curse
Peter Kalis / Special to The National Law Journal December 22, 2008
As the head of a major customer of American law schools, I am concerned about the impact of U.S. News & World Report's annual law school ranking.The ranking sells magazines. It generates heat, not light. In the legal industry, we're used to this art form — a magazine develops a ranking using a questionable approach, lets loose with this year's version and then starts reporting on its own pseudo-news as if it's something to which we should pay attention. For the most part, it's not.
I have two major gripes with the U.S. News phenomenon.
First, I'd like to take up the cause of "nondesigner" law schools. I'll focus on the University of Pittsburgh School of Law but there are many "Pitt Laws" in our markets — law schools with dedicated teachers and researchers, fine student bodies and solid market reputations that, alas, do not rank them with Yale or Harvard.
The real Pitt Law was hammered this year in the U.S. News ranking and dropped 16 places, from 57 to 73. Other law schools experienced abrupt movements up and down this year's ranking as compared with last. Such sudden changes among stable institutions reveal more about the ranking than the law schools themselves. If change comes slowly to law firms, it comes even more slowly within academia. I am a graduate of Yale Law School. It was and is a great place — but it's no Pitt Law. Yale Law is the same tiny size it was 50 years ago — about 165 students per class. The 50 largest law firms in the country now employ about 65,000 lawyers. Yale Law today, sad to say, is quantitatively beside the point to most of the country's leading law firms. And, of course, "Yale Law" is merely a metaphor that embraces Harvard, Stanford, Chicago and the other "designer" law schools whose entering class sizes are frozen in time like the fetching smile of a prom date you haven't seen in 40 years.
Consider the impact of the real Pitt Law on my firm. We have 29 partners and 60 lawyers overall who are graduates of Pitt Law. It has supplied us with a global development partner, a global general counsel, a global head of litigation and the managing partner of one of our largest offices. It trains great leaders as well as great lawyers not only because ideas matter there, but also because emotional intelligence and analytical intelligence go hand in hand. It doesn't sit well with me when Pitt Law is unfairly maligned.
I understand that the presidency of the Harvard Law Review is the legal equivalent to the Heisman Trophy. But there aren't many of them, and not all of them really perform at the next level. Consider the storied National Football League career of Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta, who played at the Harvard of college football — the University of Miami. Such ruminations won't take you long; his lackluster career was over in a flash. Compare the still blooming career of that fabulous quarterback from the "other" Miami, Ben Roethlisberger. It's what you do between the lines that counts, and from that perspective I see little discernible difference among the top graduates of scores of law schools.
Endangering diversity
Here's my second gripe: My firm and firms across America depend on law schools to solve the diversity riddle. If they don't graduate minority lawyers, we can't hire them. I'm worried that the mindless competition created by the U.S. News ranking could lead law schools to skew their admissions processes away from admitting minority applicants.
A recent report in the New York Law Journal cited the dropping enrollment of minority law students and described the view of law school deans that efforts to scramble up the U.S. News list are partly to blame. With law schools focusing on quantifiable items as the best way to climb the charts, minority and other deserving candidates with less stellar scores may be left by the wayside.
I was such a candidate. My LSAT score was mediocre. I was a hard-working kid from West Virginia University, and Yale Law placed a bet on me. If Yale Law had been paying attention to some prehistoric version of U.S. News, I would never have made the team. I would not have been editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal nor law clerk to Chief Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia or Associate Justice Byron White. In the age of U.S. News, can the "Pitt Laws" afford such risk-taking?
My law firm and others like it live at the intersection of globalization and regulation. Our industry is crucial to economic development around the world, as we advise and advocate in response to cross-border movements of people, products, services and capital and to the ratchet-like intrusions of governments into the marketplace. We can't do our job without the scores of "Pitt Laws" continuing to attract, educate and acculturate thousands of talented students.
If you are a beleaguered law school dean, know that this customer pays not a damn bit of attention to the U.S. News ranking — nor should your applicant pool.
Peter Kalis is the chairman and global managing partner of K&L Gates.
To learn more about K&L Gates, visit http://www.klgates.com/.
Showing posts with label Legal Recruiting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legal Recruiting. Show all posts
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
This Is For The Law Students
For those of you currently going through the lovely (please note my sarcasm) experience of on campus recruiting, please check out The Recruitment Story. The Chair of Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's Recruiting Committee along with two law students discuss on campus recruiting. Enjoy!
And best of luck to all of you going through OCI. Consider it a rite of passage.
And best of luck to all of you going through OCI. Consider it a rite of passage.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Recession Job Searches
There is an Allstate commercial that starts with Dennis Haysbert, who starred as President David Palmer on the critically acclaimed “24” and now heads up the cast of “The Unit”, saying “we may not be in a recession, but it sure feels like one.” Well, I would like to rephrase that quote to say, “we may not be in a recession, but the legal market is responding as though we are, and thus we must act accordingly.”
In the hallways of the top law firms, in the bar study courses across the country and in the class rooms of the law schools, whispers filled with fear are growing louder as discussions about the current legal job market – or lack thereof – become more abundant. As such legal giants as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP announce massive layoffs, attorneys debate whether the current times resemble the downturn of the nineties or 9/11.
I am sure everyone can agree that lateral movement has slowed down to a near halt. So how do legal employers find qualified candidates in the current economic climate? And more importantly, how do the attorneys who dare to make lateral moves right now find positions? The simple answer to both questions is to use a legal recruiter. For the most part, hiring a legal recruiter to help fill a vacancy or find you a position makes the search easier.
Legal employers utilize recruiters because recruiters are expected to find quality candidates quickly. Currently, law firms are being flooded with resumes of candidates that are searching for jobs due to layoffs or, in the case of the solo practitioner, due to the disappearance of business. Yet, only a few positions exist. Gone are the days where work is so plentiful that overstaffing is commonplace. Thus, employers’ resources are drained when they utilize their staff to review these piles of resumes flowing in. Add in the fact that statistics indicate that as baby boomers leave the job market and law school graduation rates remain flat, there will be a shortage of qualified attorneys. As a result, employers will be relying more heavily on recruiters to find them top talent – recession or not.
On the flip side, candidates need to utilize recruiters so that their resumes land on top of the pile. Experienced recruiters have developed relationships with different employers, and employers respect their opinions and suggestions. This allows the recruiter to get a candidate that may have fallen between the cracks before an employer for a thorough consideration. Basically, an experienced recruiter can help a candidate jump to the front of the line.
What makes recruiters so special? It is the job of a recruiter to learn the market, the players and the requirements of each position. The more a recruiter understands the market, the culture of the different employers and the details of the vacancies, the more qualified the recruiter will be to find a good match. It takes a lot of time and energy to gather this information. Time and energy that most candidates rather not spend, especially if a candidate is currently employed. Simply, why reinvent the wheel when someone already has the blueprints and the contact list?
In a downturn such as the one in right now, both sides of the coin – employers and candidates – turn to recruiters, most of whom are former practicing attorneys, because of their contacts in the industry. Often recruiters are able to find or place top candidates because they have many contacts they can call for recommendations. Most jobs are filled and deals done through the use of contacts. Recruiters tap their contacts to find out as to who may be looking or who of their contacts think would be interested. Often, it is through one of the recruiter’s contacts that an actual match is made between employer and candidate.
If a recruiter is unable to make a love connection through his or her contacts, often the recruiter turns to a database maintained by the recruiter that provides an excellent source for potential candidates. If the recruiter is thorough, this database will contain resumes of active and inactive candidates. In addition, the database shall include target candidates, which are qualified candidates in the industry that may be able be persuaded to leave their current job for the right opportunity.
Similarly, recruiters should have a database on employers and what their areas of practice. Therefore, when a top candidate’s resume is received, but no actual vacancies exist, the recruiter can contact a select group of employers who may be interested in speaking with the candidate. Even if they are not actively looking, most firms will make room for a top candidate in a practice area where there tends to be a shortage of qualified attorneys.
For difficult searches, an experienced recruiter will utilize fellow recruiters. Joining forces with recruiters from all over the country, allow the recruiter to provide a more thorough search. Both legal employers and candidates should look for a recruiter that can provide such a service, especially where a search covers multiple states or metropolitan areas. For example, one recruiter may know of a potential candidate but may not work in that industry or area of the country and thus, may refer that candidate to another recruiter more qualified to assist such candidate.
Moreover, if diversity is the name of the job search game, then legal recruiters are an excellent source for guidance. As with most legal employers, legal recruiters are setting up diversity initiatives as well. Many of the larger recruiting firms are creating diversity departments and/or diversity coordinator positions. The goal of these departments or coordinator positions is to advise employers on the hiring and retention of diverse candidates as well as provide the employers with qualified diverse candidates to choose from.
Lastly, the advantage of using a legal recruiter is the benefit of receiving a pre-screened candidate. Most recruiters conduct phone interviews to determine qualifications and interest of candidates. In addition, any creditable recruiter conducts background checks on the candidates prior to submitting a candidate’s resume to an employer. Background checks should be conducted no matter how wonderful a candidate may appear. A recruiter does not want to place someone who has lied about where he/she has worked, attended school or licenses received. A mistake like this could destroy a recruiter’s reputation and career.
On the same token, candidates should welcome these preliminary screens so that if any questionable information arises, things can be addressed and rectified prior to a potential employer receiving their resume. It is better for the recruiter to deal with any potential reasons for an employer to reject a candidate versus losing a job offer because the employer found out something negative about the candidate. In closing, both employers and candidates should utilize legal recruiters to expedite and provide efficiency to the job search and actual hiring processes. And the fact that the legal market in this country is experiencing one of its worse downturns in a long time (whether you choose to call this downturn a recession is up to you), the need to utilize legal recruiters is even greater.
In the hallways of the top law firms, in the bar study courses across the country and in the class rooms of the law schools, whispers filled with fear are growing louder as discussions about the current legal job market – or lack thereof – become more abundant. As such legal giants as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP announce massive layoffs, attorneys debate whether the current times resemble the downturn of the nineties or 9/11.
I am sure everyone can agree that lateral movement has slowed down to a near halt. So how do legal employers find qualified candidates in the current economic climate? And more importantly, how do the attorneys who dare to make lateral moves right now find positions? The simple answer to both questions is to use a legal recruiter. For the most part, hiring a legal recruiter to help fill a vacancy or find you a position makes the search easier.
Legal employers utilize recruiters because recruiters are expected to find quality candidates quickly. Currently, law firms are being flooded with resumes of candidates that are searching for jobs due to layoffs or, in the case of the solo practitioner, due to the disappearance of business. Yet, only a few positions exist. Gone are the days where work is so plentiful that overstaffing is commonplace. Thus, employers’ resources are drained when they utilize their staff to review these piles of resumes flowing in. Add in the fact that statistics indicate that as baby boomers leave the job market and law school graduation rates remain flat, there will be a shortage of qualified attorneys. As a result, employers will be relying more heavily on recruiters to find them top talent – recession or not.
On the flip side, candidates need to utilize recruiters so that their resumes land on top of the pile. Experienced recruiters have developed relationships with different employers, and employers respect their opinions and suggestions. This allows the recruiter to get a candidate that may have fallen between the cracks before an employer for a thorough consideration. Basically, an experienced recruiter can help a candidate jump to the front of the line.
What makes recruiters so special? It is the job of a recruiter to learn the market, the players and the requirements of each position. The more a recruiter understands the market, the culture of the different employers and the details of the vacancies, the more qualified the recruiter will be to find a good match. It takes a lot of time and energy to gather this information. Time and energy that most candidates rather not spend, especially if a candidate is currently employed. Simply, why reinvent the wheel when someone already has the blueprints and the contact list?
In a downturn such as the one in right now, both sides of the coin – employers and candidates – turn to recruiters, most of whom are former practicing attorneys, because of their contacts in the industry. Often recruiters are able to find or place top candidates because they have many contacts they can call for recommendations. Most jobs are filled and deals done through the use of contacts. Recruiters tap their contacts to find out as to who may be looking or who of their contacts think would be interested. Often, it is through one of the recruiter’s contacts that an actual match is made between employer and candidate.
If a recruiter is unable to make a love connection through his or her contacts, often the recruiter turns to a database maintained by the recruiter that provides an excellent source for potential candidates. If the recruiter is thorough, this database will contain resumes of active and inactive candidates. In addition, the database shall include target candidates, which are qualified candidates in the industry that may be able be persuaded to leave their current job for the right opportunity.
Similarly, recruiters should have a database on employers and what their areas of practice. Therefore, when a top candidate’s resume is received, but no actual vacancies exist, the recruiter can contact a select group of employers who may be interested in speaking with the candidate. Even if they are not actively looking, most firms will make room for a top candidate in a practice area where there tends to be a shortage of qualified attorneys.
For difficult searches, an experienced recruiter will utilize fellow recruiters. Joining forces with recruiters from all over the country, allow the recruiter to provide a more thorough search. Both legal employers and candidates should look for a recruiter that can provide such a service, especially where a search covers multiple states or metropolitan areas. For example, one recruiter may know of a potential candidate but may not work in that industry or area of the country and thus, may refer that candidate to another recruiter more qualified to assist such candidate.
Moreover, if diversity is the name of the job search game, then legal recruiters are an excellent source for guidance. As with most legal employers, legal recruiters are setting up diversity initiatives as well. Many of the larger recruiting firms are creating diversity departments and/or diversity coordinator positions. The goal of these departments or coordinator positions is to advise employers on the hiring and retention of diverse candidates as well as provide the employers with qualified diverse candidates to choose from.
Lastly, the advantage of using a legal recruiter is the benefit of receiving a pre-screened candidate. Most recruiters conduct phone interviews to determine qualifications and interest of candidates. In addition, any creditable recruiter conducts background checks on the candidates prior to submitting a candidate’s resume to an employer. Background checks should be conducted no matter how wonderful a candidate may appear. A recruiter does not want to place someone who has lied about where he/she has worked, attended school or licenses received. A mistake like this could destroy a recruiter’s reputation and career.
On the same token, candidates should welcome these preliminary screens so that if any questionable information arises, things can be addressed and rectified prior to a potential employer receiving their resume. It is better for the recruiter to deal with any potential reasons for an employer to reject a candidate versus losing a job offer because the employer found out something negative about the candidate. In closing, both employers and candidates should utilize legal recruiters to expedite and provide efficiency to the job search and actual hiring processes. And the fact that the legal market in this country is experiencing one of its worse downturns in a long time (whether you choose to call this downturn a recession is up to you), the need to utilize legal recruiters is even greater.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
