How Can You Continue to Hire Top-Tier Talent for Your In-House Legal Team?

For a Solicitor working all hours under the sun and sacrificing part of their weekends, the lure of an In-house role has often been strong. Many are happy to trade their high salaries for a chance to actually enjoy their hard-earned funds, in a company that offers a more flexible working environment alongside alternative development opportunities.

Traditionally this argument has been strong enough to make your company attractive, and it can be tempting to think as the head of an In-house legal function that attracting top talent will continue to be straightforward.

We are seeing this being the case less often though, with Law firms all too aware of the appeal of In-house and adopting measures that are having an effect on the allure of the roles. Coupled with the threat from Regional firms, how can you make sure your company will continue to be attractive to the top lawyers?

Flexible Working

Work/Life Balance - One of the main benefits of working In-house is the work/life balance it affords. Firms have realised this, and we are seeing a number of different initiatives being used in order to increase retention. My colleague, Adam North, has written an interesting piece investigating the impact of billable hours, and their removal. (Link in comments) The bane of many an Associate’s career, we often hear billable hours being mentioned as the primary cause for leaving Private Practice.

Billable Hours - My colleague, Adam North, has written an interesting piece investigating the impact of billable hours, and their removal. (Link in comments) The bane of many an Associate’s career, we often hear billable hours being mentioned as the primary cause for leaving Private Practice.

Slaughter and May are leading the way with the Magic Circle firms, removing billable hours altogether. While this is being leveraged as a move to promote collaboration and a positive atmosphere in the firm, it has the combined effect of removing one of the main reasons that Associates and Senior Associates becomes disillusioned with life in a firm.

Core Hours - Another idea we are seeing implemented is the introduction of ‘core hours’. This in essence means attendance is required in the office between a certain timeframe, usually 10am – 4pm, and outside of that the lawyer is trusted to work from a location they see fit. This flexibility can mean avoiding rush hour traffic and working from home.

Regional Competition - Both of these mentioned above are still at early stages of implementation, and so it’s difficult to gauge their impact. Perhaps the best yardstick to use is by analysing the Regions.

For companies based in Greater London and beyond, the competition from Regional firms to be flexible is rife. Already ahead of their City counterparts, flexible working is commonplace, and salaries are usually around the same level as In-house roles. This means hiring into your company from a Regional pool will require a more targeted approach.

Salaries

Salary is one of the main motivators for a lawyer and there’s no escaping the fact that with Magic Circle firms increasing NQ packages up to around ￡100,000, and top US firms still offering astronomical salaries, tempting the most impressive lawyers to switch In-house will be no mean feat.

Top City-trained lawyers will be earning around ￡70,000 on qualification, which makes them slightly more affordable. When comparing to In-house salaries though, it would still be quite a drop – particularly for the lower-paying sectors such as FMCG and Retail which can offer as low as ￡40,000 for a Newly-Qualified Solicitor. (It is of course worth noting that the top-paying sectors will offer up to ￡80,000 for the same experience, and even in the same sector there will be huge disparities between the bottom and top payers)

It is widely acknowledged that the salary to work/life balance trade-off will appeal to some lawyers more than others, but fundamentally if you’re looking to hire a junior lawyer you may find their salary expectations beginning to creep up.

We tend to find that as a lawyer becomes more experienced and completes a few years of the rigours that working in Practice demands, the work/life balance becomes more important and the salary less so. This could be for a variety of reasons, including burn-out from the long hours to looking to start a family, but this means we tend to see a larger pool at around the 3-5 PQE mark.

Attracting the Best Talent

Now, aside from firms in London improving their work/life balance and salaries and Regional firms being on a level pegging, there is also the threat from your competitors. In-house legal teams are a lot more common than they were five years ago.

This means to stand out and attract the best talent in a crowded field you need to combine your offering with a strong brand message. This doesn’t just mean including a line about how diverse and modern your company is on a job ad, it means partnering with a recruitment agency that really takes the time to understand your business and utilises unique delivery methods to deliver your message.

One method we use is our custom campaign microsites – an example of one with full explanation can be found here: https://dmjcustomrecruitment.com/liam-custom-campaign/. We have found success with 100% of these, with candidates remarking on the clear branding and message that our clients can put across.

There are a number of nuances to the trends mentioned that could’ve been discussed in this article that can be found in our 2019/20 Salary Guide. This is due to be published by the end of August and includes full salary information from Paralegals to General Counsels in a range of sectors.