Law Q Newsletter (January 2008)

Intimidating Interviewing

With this technique you intentionally create an intimidating atmosphere. Position yourself at the opposite end of a large table, or across a large desk. Bright florescent lighting is ideal. Raise your chair higher than the candidate's chair so you appear rigid and in a more powerful stance. The goal is to create the image of an "all-business" interviewer who does not want to engage in small talk. It is best to start with extremely difficult and uncomfortable questions. Maintain eye contact while showing little expression on your face as the candidate answers your questions. Challenge the answers provided when possible to see if your candidate can handle on-the-spot pressure. Bold interviewers may even ask a candidate to sit up straight or to speak using more formal language during the interview. This style is an effective tool to evaluate a candidate's ability to handles stress, overcome hostile communication, and work under pressure.

"Friend" Interviewing

Some candidates are very effective at putting on the "interview face" and may seem like the perfect fit when interviewed by a manager or supervisor. However, an interview with potential co-workers could bring out his or her true personality.

A third option is to have friendly, current employees interview the candidate. The employees should approach the candidate as a friend and future co-worker, trying to bring out the true nature of the candidate. Some candidates are very effective at putting on the "interview face" and may seem like the perfect fit when interviewed by a manager or supervisor. However, an interview with potential co-workers could bring out his or her true personality. It is important to make this interview feel like a friendly discussion between future co-workers and not an actual interview. If done properly, this tactic should get the candidate to relax enough to reveal character traits that may otherwise be unseen.

Panel Interviewing

When implementing this technique, you create a team of several members, each with a different interviewing style. The team then interviews the candidate as a group, freely asking questions from a pre-planned list. Panel interviewing method forces the candidate to react to a variety of questions and personalities, and will show if the candidate can handle a situation in which diversity is a factor. Be sure to pre-define a leader when doing panel interviews. If the candidate is obviously not the right fit, the leader should cut the interview short to save the team's time. After the interview, team members will have differing opinions about the candidate. Engage in open debate about the pros and cons of each candidate shortly after the interview. Consensus may not be reached, but the open dialogue will help identify the best candidates. It is usually valuable for the leader do one-on-one interviews with the top few candidates before making a final decision.

To ensure a properly executed interview, before initiating the interview process, meet and define the questions and styles to be used by all interviewers. Distribute candidate resumes or applications to all interviewers and discuss the desired characteristics of the ideal candidate. Be strategic with both the questions and styles used by each person conducting an interview. Arrange your interview room or rooms to augment the success of your interview style. And, plan your list of questions carefully to make sure that you are not crossing any legal boundaries. With a little preplanning, you can successfully manage the entire interview process, and hopefully gain a new employee that is a perfect match for your organization.

Lynnley Browning, New York Times

Even lawyers need a hug. When workdays stretch into worknights and the pressure to meet the quota for billable hours grows, lawyers and staff members at the firm of Perkins Coie can often expect a little bonus.

In Perkins Coie's Chicago office, members of the firm's "happiness committee" recently left candied apples on everyone's desks. Last month, the happiness committee surprised lawyers, paralegals and assistants in the Washington office with milkshakes from a local Potbelly Sandwich Works, a favorite lunch spot.

"That's the whole beauty of it all - it's random acts of kindness," said Lori Anger, client relations manager of Perkins Coie, which is based in Seattle. "We have pretty strict hours, so it's a nice way to surprise people."

The benefits for lawyers have burgeoned in recent years as firms pull out the stops to attract top-notch talent. While perks for the partners have always been common, many are now finding their way to associates - young lawyers who have not yet made partner.

And with those associates routinely jumping ship to go elsewhere, law firms are trying to create a workplace that caters to their young recruits' wants and needs, while freeing them to bill 60 hours or more a week.

"We're in a war for talent," Gary Beu, chief human resources officer at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis, said, "and we have to do everything we can to attract and retain that talent."

The benefits go beyond the laptops and BlackBerrys, late-night rides home, Friday beer-and-pretzel fests and sports tickets that are standard fare at many large and midsize law firms. Many of the new perks recognize a lifestyle change that law firms are just coming to grips with.

"Money is not the only thing that drives these lawyers right now," said Marina Sirras, who runs a recruitment firm in New York for lawyers. "They want to be able to have a family and enjoy their family. This has never been as hot an issue."

Law firms have been slower than some other businesses to award benefits, in part because of their smaller, and often complex, private structures.

On offer now are concierge services, in which a lawyer can have the equivalent of a personal valet pick up theater and sports tickets, the dry cleaning, take a car to the repair shop or even choose a Halloween costume.

"We compete in terms of having a life," Ms. Anger said. "We don't compete by dangling a lot of material perks." Unusual in the industry, Perkins Coie offers pet insurance.

The perks come on top of higher salaries and larger bonuses - this year, the top-offs have been doubled at some practices. At the New York office of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, an old-line firm, associates will receive special payouts of $10,000 to $50,000, in addition to their year-end bonuses up to $35,000.

At the same time, law firms have begun demanding more from associates, raising minimum billable hours over the years.

To combat burnout, some firms also offer extended sabbaticals for a wide range of pursuits - to study classical piano, for instance, or work on political campaigns.

But while some of these benefits take the form of highly practical solutions - like on-site child care - others raise questions whether law firms are subsidizing a cushy lifestyle.

"As if a $160,000 starting salary wasn't enough for associates" fresh out of law school, "yes, there's more," said Peter Johnson of Law Practice Consultants in Boston.

For example, Sullivan & Cromwell, another old-line firm, with more than 600 lawyers, guarantees the first $100,000 of mortgages of associates who have been with the firm for at least six months.

DLA Piper, the nation's largest law firm, reimburses employees $2,000 when they buy a hybrid car. Fulbright & Jaworski offers on-site tailoring and reimbursements to employees who buy a Nissan or General Motors vehicle.

"In our business, people are our main asset so our benefits are designed to keep people happy and healthy," a spokesman for DLA Piper, Jason Costa, said.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, a 600-lawyer firm based in New York, offers employees a service akin to a personal issues coach and psychotherapist through a deal with Corporate Counseling Associates of Manhattan. The consulting firm has a battery of staff psychologists and social workers to provide advice on issues including stress, anxiety, depression and divorce.

While many companies have offered employee assistance programs over the years, few have Ph.D. psychologists on staff.

A spokeswoman for Fried, Frank, Paula Zirinsky, said, "We want employees to be successful in their personal as well as their work lives."

The new perks are separate from the wining and dining that top law firms conduct each year for their summer associates, whom they hope to lure back after they finish law school.