Featured Candidates
Corporate/Native American Law Associate
Angela is a third year corporate associate with top credentials and extensive experience representing tribal interests. She carries a $400k+ book of business.
See her full resume here.
Commercial
Litigation Associate
Adam is a third year associate who graduated in the top quarter of his nationally known law school. He has 3+ years of experience servicing Fortune 500 clients. See his full resume here. |
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Leslie is a very detail oriented paralegal with a BA and a paralegal certificate and seven years of transactional and real estate experience with top notch firms. See her full resume here.
Legal Secretary
Barbara is a great bilingual transactional legal secretary with 20+ years of experience at the same firm. Typing 90+ wpm, she is used to supporting multiple senior attorneys and is a seasoned administrator.
See her full resume here.
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Greetings!
You are probably as excited as we are to see signs of spring in the Rockies! What a great time of year- nicer weather, college basketball's March Madness, and still good skiing to be had. Business also seems to be bustling for law firms in the Colorado legal community. The majority of our clients are looking for ways to expand and grow their practices. I have heard of no practice group reductions or systematic lay-offs, but rather clients seeking more office space to house the new legal talent they will eventually hire. After addressing any space issues, finding the right talent is the primary obstacle to growth.
We are seeing fewer quality local attorneys and legal staff who are simply "looking for a job". Instead, we are seeing attorneys and staff who are willing to change firms or companies only for a better opportunity. On the plus side, there has been a definite up-tick of high quality attorneys and staff from across the country who simply want to move to Colorado. They are happy to leave higher salaries and accrued benefits for location and quality of life. We Coloradoans often forget how fortunate we are just to be living in this beautiful part of the country!
Included in this Newsletter, please find some interesting articles below on such varied topics as 'associate salaries affecting partner compensation', 'management succession planning', and perhaps most relevant to this publication- 'recruiting out of state candidates'. Please also feel free to look over our featured attorney and legal staff candidates in the left hand margin. The resumes of both our featured candidates and our other top notch candidates can be viewed on the 'Recruiting' page of our website at www.lawqteam.com. Have a great month and please feel free to contact us with any of your recruiting or employment questions.
Truly yours,
David James Fennell, Esq.
Law Q, LLC |
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Candidates - Quality vs Convenience
The quickest way to limit the quality of candidates you receive is to place tight constraints on geography when recruiting. Seems obvious, right? And yet many businesses fail to recruit outside of their comfort zone, sacrificing the quality of candidates for locality.
Limiting your search to local candidates limits your recruiting
The quickest way to limit the quality of candidates you receive is to place tight constraints on geography when recruiting. Seems obvious, right? And yet many businesses fail to recruit outside of their comfort zone, sacrificing the quality of candidates for locality. What businesses need to realize is that a candidate's locality is no substitute for the skills, experience, and background they possess.
There are several benefits to searching for the best candidates outside of your local area. For starters, when you hire only candidates from one background or vicinity, you tend to get one way of thinking or one thought pattern. These candidates have similar life experiences and often times have similar beliefs or approaches to the job. Local candidates think in terms of local culture which is good at times but stifles creativity and fresh thinking. Recruiting outside of your area welcomes a unique perspective to your company.
A candidate who is not familiar with day-to-day life in your community has a fresh outlook to every situation they encounter. They have a completely different approach to problem solving than probably most of your local employees.
A candidate who is not familiar with day-to-day life in your community has a fresh outlook to every situation they encounter. They have a completely different approach to problem solving than probably most of your local employees. New ideas are born and your business thrives with innovation when quality hires bring new insights into the workplace.
Another advantage to looking beyond locality is that you reach quality candidates considering relocation. Think about it - no one clicks on a job posting for a far away city if they are not currently thinking about moving. Or, at the very least, they would be open to the thought of a change in scenery. You can also choose to perform a resume database search without placing restrictions on the geography. If you find a candidate that is perfect for the job but who lives 200 miles away, contact them anyway. They may be more than willing to work for you despite having to relocate.
Great candidates live everywhere, both in rural and urban locations, so you will always find candidates ready for a change of pace regardless of where you look. Reaching these candidates adds variety to the workplace and a talented employee who brings more to your position than a less qualified candidate who lives locally.
Searching in cities that are farther away than normal also reaches candidates who may have grown tired of rural life and are ready for life in the big city or vice-versa. Great candidates live everywhere, both in rural and urban locations, so you will always find candidates ready for a change of pace regardless of where you look. Reaching these candidates adds variety to the workplace and a talented employee who brings more to your position than a less qualified candidate who lives locally.
Be sure not to make the cost of relocating a sticking point or a snag in the recruitment process if you feel the candidate has the qualities you need. However, be prepared to sell the candidate on all the wonderful things your city or town has to offer and all the reasons why they want to work at there. Some candidates won't need any convincing while others will require some coaxing and a little time to warm up to the idea of relocating. Read "No Cost Relocation" for more information about candidate relocation.
If relocation is not an option, you might consider arranging a remote working situation for a candidate who possesses the skills and qualities you seek. In fact, according to the 2007 CareerBuilder.com Job Forecast, 33 percent of employers are offering candidates more work-at-home or telecommuting options to keep up with recruiting top talent. Many positions such as medical billing, programming, IT, customer care, and more can be performed at home with inexpensive technologies. This enables you to recruit the candidates you want regardless of location, with no worries about relocation for either party involved. If this is what it takes to get the best talent on board at your business it is a better option than settling for a candidate because they only live a few blocks away from work.
The goal of your recruiting is to attract and hire the highest quality candidate you can get your hands on. Sometimes your ideal candidate does not fall within your local territory. Do not let this discourage you from pursuing a candidate you know to be perfect for the job. The best candidates make the best employees regardless of the city and state in which they currently reside. All that matters in the end is that you have the best employees working for your business.
*reprinted with permission by CareerBuilder 2008
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Associate Salary Spikes Pinch Partner Profits
Kellie Schmitt
The Recorder
As California law firms continue to post their 2007 financial results, their leaders say back-to-back associate salary increases bit into partner profits.
"The fact is that we only passed on much less than half of the associate salary increases onto the clients, and the partners have absorbed more," said Guy Halgren, the chairman of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. "The partners made less money."
While most California firms, including Sheppard Mullin, still reported steady increases in profitability, leaders acknowledged that returns could have been higher without the double hit of salary increases. There's only so much you can pass on to the client and associates, leaders said, and that means partners had to absorb more in 2007.
"We're seeing increases in our costs -- there's no doubt about that," said Mark Helm, the co-managing partner of Munger, Tolles & Olson. "I suppose it did take away from what we'd have otherwise seen."
In early 2007, many big firms raised starting pay to $145,000 in California after the scale went to $160,000 in New York. Months later, as California competitors began paying New York wages in the Golden State, leading firms followed suit with a second round of raises. For law firms, real estate and associate compensation are the two biggest costs, equaling roughly 80 percent of total expenses, said Arthur Culvahouse Jr., O'Melveny & Myers' chairman. "When you have substantial increases in one of the big expense drivers, it has to affect profits," he said.
"It has an impact, without question," said Kenneth Doran, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's managing partner. "It's a direct deduction."
When net income shrinks, PPP shrinks, he said, especially when first-years are getting an extra $25,000 raise that ripples up the associate scale.
"Many were surprised by two increases in a single year," he said. The pinch was probably felt more by the equity partners, since those in the nonequity ranks often cut a deal in advance, much like salaried employees, said Alan Miles, an L.A.-based recruiter with Alan Miles and Associates. "They take the money to pay these raises out of the profits the firm generates," Miles said. "Therefore, lawyers relying on those profits for their main cash flow are affected. It's now being diverted." But some firms had plenty of revenue to cushion those withdrawals. While Latham & Watkins' Scott Haber, the managing partner of the San Francisco office, acknowledged there were additional expenses because of the salaries, it didn't dent Latham's sky-high profits. "The numbers speak for themselves," he said. "But I would agree that this year had a bigger effect."
SALARY STRATEGIES
Firms took varied approaches to sucking up the added hits. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips adopted a two-pronged strategy, only raising the salaries once in a year. The second increase -- to $160,000 -- was announced in 2007, but not implemented until this year. That's because the firm is of the belief that one raise a year is sufficient, said William Quicksilver, Manatt's managing partner. "It worked out fine -- we were able to continue to recruit and retain folks," he said. San Diego-based Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps used the news of more increases as impetus for adopting a merit-based salary schedule -- removing itself from the follow-the-leader lockstep approach. But other firms simply accepted the double whammy. "We can't control associate compensation or real estate," said Gibson Dunn's Doran. "It's a cost of doing business, and we're committed to positioning ourselves in a certain part of the market." Halgren said the partners at Sheppard Mullin realize that, too, and take the hit to their paychecks to ensure that the firm gets top talent.
One thing is certain -- leaders are optimistic that runaway associate compensation will stabilize. Historically, salaries don't go up at a steady rate, Munger Tolles' Helm pointed out. They jump, they flatten and they jump. "One hopes it will even out," he said. And the current climate might encourage that, Doran said. To the extent that firms are less busy, the supply-and-demand curve may shift a bit, alleviating the upward pressures on salaries, he said. But, when it comes to associate pay, it's anyone's guess.
"Who knows?" said O'Melveny's Culvahouse. "There may be a firm out there having a great year that decides to give itself a recruiting edge. And then we could be off and running again."
Reprinted with permission from the February 27, 2008 edition of The Recorder © 2008 ALM. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.
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Succession Management
Bring active planning for the future of your company and the careers of your employees together by developing a quality Succession Management plan. Use this article as a resource for your company to discover and take the best steps toward successful Succession Management.
As the workforce ages and the competition for skilled employees become even tighter, the need to be proactive and implement a Succession Management plan is imperative to the future success of your small to medium sized business.
Too often, however, Succession Management or Succession Planning is left to the last moment when the process should start with the selection and retention of employees occupying key roles within your business and where a vacancy causes negative effects on your bottom-line. Having the right people positioned for succession ensures short-term success and the longevity of your business.
What is Succession Management?
Succession Management or Succession Planning is the preparation for the replacement of one high ranking employee by another, usually prompted by retirement or resignation. Succession Management involves preparing the new employee before the old one leaves, possibly with training or through work shadowing. At a senior level, management succession should be accomplished as smoothly as possible to avoid organizational crises caused by absent or inadequate top management.
Developing Your Own Succession Management Plan
The concept of Succession Management has become an important part of many companies' strategic planning, but not all companies. Too many think of Succession Management as having application only in large conglomerates. When in reality, Succession Management should be a part of every business's strategic plan or vision of where your business is going in the future.
Succession Management is much more important than the time many businesses devote to it would indicate. Virtually every key position and key person in an organization is a candidate for a succession plan. The important impact is that it is nearly impossible to successfully promote someone unless there is a trained person to take over the position being vacated.
The important impact is that it is nearly impossible to successfully promote someone unless there is a trained person to take over the position being vacated. To effectively implement a succession plan, one needs to include/consider a number of elements, including:
1. What is the long-term direction of your company?
2. Who are the key people you want to develop and nurture for the future?
3. How does the concept of Succession Management fit into your current strategy?
4. What are the career paths that your most talented people should be following? Is each path customized to fit the abilities and talents of the employees involved? (The reason for this question is that you must be sure that the employee you have in mind shares your vision of them and their role with your company.)
5. Should you wait for positions to open up before promoting someone or should you make opportunities for each individual as they grow and mature to keep them challenged and stimulated and avoid losing them to a possibly faster growing company or your competition?
(Your plan should be proactive, with people moving into different areas for experience and training before they are needed in critical positions, rather than reactive - waiting for openings to occur, then scurrying around to find an appropriate candidate at the last second.)
There is no one answer or one Succession Management plan that works for all small to medium sized businesses. There are different approaches which may be used, depending on your situation. In some cases, a business may have to move some people along quickly to expose them to a broad range of experiences, and possibly to fill vacancies. In some cases, your ability to educate and promote depends on the capabilities and strengths of the people who currently occupy your key positions and your plans for them for the future - where do you see them, what are you preparing or grooming them for? In others, a deeper involvement in selected departments or disciplines may be indicated. This depends on your business's culture and processes in place as much as anything else. However, in some cases, your ability to educate and promote depends on the capabilities and strengths of the people who currently occupy your key positions and your plans for them for the future - where do you see them, what are you preparing or grooming them for?
Every small to medium sized business should have a Succession Management plan in place. To find out more on how to strategically set up a plan for your business, read Step B on "Building a Succession Management Plan for the Small to Medium Sized Business". Step B 1 Occupational employment projections to 2008 (1999, p.75)
* reprinted with permission by Career Builder 2008
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