Becoming a Legal Headhunter, career suicide? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am a biglaw associate that has been looking to transition into legal headhunting. Does anyone have any knowledge/contacts of anyone who has transitioned into this field? The information available online seems pretty sporadic in terms of transparency on income potential and upward movement.

[DELG]

Sort of a silly question. It's the death of one career of course. I've heard $25K+ in fees for successful placements.

[Anonymous User]

Your big law legal career would be all but dead. Headhunter model is very eat what you kill. Placement fees are 15k and up from what I hear (usually paid half upon hire and half 6 months/12 months later - if still employed-). Have seen Headhunters flip to strategic "talent recruitment" roles at firms/companies.

[nealric]

Sort of a silly question. It's the death of one career of course. I've heard $25K+ in fees for successful placements.

They can be significantly higher than that for partners. However, like most of sales (and make no mistake, recruiting is a sales job), 10% of recruiters make 90% of the money. A $25k placement fee sounds less appealing if you are only able to make 1-2 placements a year after day after day of getting hung up on and leaving forlorn messages on the voicemails of junior associates.

You are done with biglaw if you go recruiting and it will be an uphill battle to practice law again afterwards. But if you would prefer sales or HR to legal work, it could be an offramp.