Potential Opening Question Forum

[Anonymous User]

There are a few firms in the city I’m interested that aren’t actively looking for associates in my practice group, but I was wondering how I could go about reaching out to see if there is some interest. I have an offer in the city, but it’s a firm that pays significantly below market (50-60k less for my class year) with similar hours requirements. So, I wanted to see if I can try to leverage an offer from a market-paging firm.

Colleagues have told me that using a recruiter is probably the best for this, but it seems weird to use a recruiter for potential interest. Why would a firm pay a recruiter a fee for a position they aren’t even actively looking for?

I spoke to a V10 partner I know and he said I should just email the partner of the group. He said that firms don’t really like paying recruiter fees in this particular city (unlike NY, where they “don’t even care”).

Should I really be emailing partners for a potential lateral position? It just seems weird. I asked this question a few months ago, I think, and didn’t receive any responses, so I wanted to elaborate.

People suggested asking associates to submit, but, my understanding is that recruiting doesn’t go out of its way to reach out to partners to see if they are open to looking at apps for a posting they don’t have since they already have their hands full with all of the posted jobs. This may differ from firm to firm, so if anyone has insight on this, I’m open to hearing about your thoughts.