How to Attract the Right Employees for Your Law Firm

Attracting the right team to work in your law firm is more difficult now than ever. Since the great resignation, lawyers demanding a better work-life balance and lawyers going out into solo firms and opening micro firms, it is more challenging than ever for law firm owners.

There are incredible team members out there. still, you just need to know where to find them with ease and be ahead of your competitors to ensure that you are attracting the best legal staff. 

In your law firm, your most valuable assets are your team members. They allow you to leverage your time and duplicate yourself, maximising your profit. 

The key is, knowing where to find them! 

Top 7 Ways To Find Your Legal Staff For Your Law Firm.

All law firm owners are playing the reputation game, whether we like it or not. So ask yourself, what is your reputation as a leader of a law firm and an employer?  The reality is if you are scaling and growing a law firm, you are always going to need new team members. But to grow, once we find the right team members, it is also essential to keep them in your law firm.

1. Creating an employee funnel or pipeline for your law practice

In the same way, you create a marketing funnel for your law firm to attract new clients it is a great idea to create a funnel that attracts new associates, paralegals, legal assistants and lawyers. 

You can do this by networking with lawyers from other firms on LinkedIn or other social media channels, going to networking events and being friendly toward lawyers from other firms, and inviting potential employees for coffee or events.

In other words, start to create relationships with potential employees. You may not employ them for five or ten years, but remember you are in business and are a law firm owner for years to come. 

This pipeline and the relationships that you create will be of massive value to you and your law firm.

2. Hire Interns or Law Graduates

Inside your law practice, create a program to allow law students of interns to come to you for work experience or practical placement experience. This can be a win, win situation for both the law firm and the candidate

Providing law students with the opportunity to learn and be part of your team is an excellent way to get to know up-and-coming lawyers, train them in the way that your firm practises law and have extra hands in the law firm to help with legal work. 

Even if you are not in a position to hire the students after they have finished their legal placement with your law firm, they are then in your pipeline for future opportunities as they arise in your firm.

3. Law Firm Recruitment Bonuses

Asking those who are currently employed by your law firm is one of the best ways to seek new employees who will fit the values of the firm. Your current legal staff have many contacts in the legal industry that you don’t have as they have potentially worked in several different law firms before working in yours. 

A referral program will reward successful team members in your firm, encouraging them to have conversations when they are in touch with their lawyer friends from past firms. It could be as simple as giving your team member a night away in a nice hotel or a bonus payment

4. Social Media-Focused Recruitment and Branding For Your Law Firm

Social media is an excellent tool for branding, but often we think of creating branding to attract clients. Ensure that your law firm's social media strategy also includes posts that will appeal

to potential legal employees. You can showcase your law firm's team, the law firm offices, activities you do as a team, such as training days, your law firm's core values and how you reward and recognise your team.

 Not to mention putting up posts on social media for your law firm that says ‘we are growing’ and let your followers know that you are hiring a new lawyer. You never know who is wanting your law firm's social media accounts. 

Inside the Scalable Business Lounge branding, your law firm is a big focus not just for client attraction but also for attracting the right employees and legal team. 

5. Consider Micro-Firm or Solo’s 

Since Covid, lawyers are starting micro firms at an incredible rate. New law firm owners are starting micro-firms or going out on their own, they are also looking for work to come in the door and often have the capacity to take on the work of other firms while they build their own practice. 

Engaging or contracting solo or micro law firm owners could be the perfect win-win scenario for your law firm and them.

6. Employ Remote Lawyers 

There is no need for lawyers these days to be confined to an office space or commute into the city with most technology at law firms in the cloud and Zoom meeting the new normal. Many lawyers are choosing to work remotely or live in regional places where there are not many law firms.

These lawyers could be ideal employees for your law firm. There are many advantages of not having your team in person for law firms, one of which is the cost of rent can be reduced. If you are struggling to find your ideal employees for your law firm, you could consider finding remote lawyers. 

7. Your Legal Practice Area-Specific Events

Attending your legal practice area events may be one of the quickest methods to discover a fresh pool of very suitable law firm applicants when hiring your A1 legal team.

Build rapport with lawyers you believe might be a perfect match for your team while you are out at networking events or legal conferences. The finest new team members are those most enthusiastic about the legal profession and are keen to attend events for further learning. Again this feeds back into the number 1 tip in creating an employee pipeline.