Fixing The Legal Recruitment Problem For Law Firms

Solicitors are struggling with legal recruitment at the moment. So, how do you go about fixing the legal recruitment problem for law firms?

I have been working with law firm owners since 2003 to help them grow their law firms.

I can honestly say that the legal recruitment problem has never been more of an issue than it is now.

The pandemic seems to haev changed how people would like to work, with some keener than ever to become legal consultants or freelance solicitors, with others happy to stay where they were but now work from home.

Consequently, there are fewer solicitors looking for jobs and more law firm owners looking to recruit them.

It has led to me spending quite a bit of time thinking about the challenge, as there is little point in getting a law firm owner a lot more clients if they have no one available to look after them.

At the same time, by looking at what I do all day, every day, and the topic of my book, The Law Firm Growth Formula, the answer to the legal recruitment problem may well be easier than it first appears.

It all starts with asking the following question:

“Are you spending as much time on recruitment as you are on winning new clients?”

When I ask this question, the answer from law firm owners is usually a resounding ‘no’.

How can anyone expect to be winning the legal recruitment challenge if they are not spending any time trying to do just that?

If you treat the legal recruitment problem in the same way that you would treat the challenge of growing your law firm, or managing the day to day running of your firm, maybe you will start to get better results.

By simply applying the principles I teach in The Law Firm Growth Formula, you could start to see results pretty quickly.

For example, the main four marketing arteries that I teach all law firms to use (because they are the most effective) are:

1. Having a great, informative law firm website with lots of pages of high quality content which convinces Google that you are specialists so that it lists it in the search results, and then convinves those prospects finding it that you are the experts they are looking for to help them.
2. Once you have this high quality, informative website, using Google Ads to drive more visitors to it who are searching for a solicitor who provides the services that your firm offers.
3. Using referrals to grow your law firm, but ensuring that you track every referral in and out so that you can measure the results but also seek out more referral partners just like your best ones.
4. Using email marketing to keep in touch with clients and prospects so that they never forget who you are and how you can help them.

If we take the same approach to fixing the legal recruitment problem, what might this look like?

Applying The Methods From The Law Firm Growth Formula To Legal Recruitment

1. Instead of usually just the one ‘Careers’ page on your website, having 50 recruitment pages on your site, with at least one for every position that you MIGHT need to fill in the course of the next year or two (it takes time for them to get traction) along with pages about why your firm is good to work for and existing staff case studies extolling the virtues of working for you etc.
2. On each of those website career pages, offering the opportunity for visitors (potential candidates) to download your careers brochure, allowing you to email them whenever you have a new vacancy to fill, handing you a ready made list of potential candidates with no agency fees involved each time.
3. Using Google Ads to attract people to your website looking for Solicitor Jobs / Parelegal Jobs/ Professional Negligence Solicitor Jobs / Legal Secretary Jobs etc etc so that they can apply for any of your current vacancies or join your careers email list.
4. Using LinkedIn to connect with people already employed elsewhere for jobs that you might need to recruit for in the future, then each time you add a new page to your careers section, or post a new job vacancy, sharing that with your ever expanding LinkedIn connection network to generate interest in each position.

Now, of course, this will take some time and some investment, but not as much as the amount you have to pay to legal recruitment companies,

If you recruit just one solicitor with a salary of £50,000 by following this plan, at a 25% recruitment fee, you would save £12,500.

That is a lot of money to spend on copywriters for the new careers section on your website, is it not?

And when you consider that once those pages are there, they remain there for good, it makes it a very shrewd investment, does it not?