How can I get into legal recruiting? How much do they make? What's the job like? Forum

[Cooldood77]

I was perusing the bios of legal recruiters at the top recruiting shops and they're very impressive. Highly prestigious people who look like they could have done anything they wanted. Ivy league JD, biglaw, clerkships.

Lateral Link: https://www.laterallink.com/team/

BCG: https://www.bcgsearch.com/legal-recruiter-directory.php

Watanabe: https://watanabellc.com/about/

Any big ones I missed? Wondering about their lives. Anyone know what they make? The schedule? Ups and downs?

[Cooldood77]

Bump. I would really appreciate any help or discussion on this. Does anyone want to talk about legal recruiters?

[nixy]

This is a weird post. Are you just trying to drum up business for recruiters? The Lateral Link recruiters are all perfectly respectable, but most aren't from top law schools or otherwise "highly prestigious," and none of the Watanabe recruiters even have JDs.

[Cooldood77]

This is a weird post. Are you just trying to drum up business for recruiters? The Lateral Link recruiters are all perfectly respectable, but most aren't from top law schools or otherwise "highly prestigious," and none of the Watanabe recruiters even have JDs.

The links I saw seemed prestigious but I didn't click on all of them. I included Watanabe because he's very well-known. Any way, do you know anything about recruiter careers?

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Two associates at my firm (NYC V20) have become recruiters in the last 5-7 years. Both of them are extroverts with big professional networks. My sense is that these are important characteristics to be a recruiter because on both ends you are essentially in sales (convincing attorneys to work with you and firms to with you).

[rc8]

isn't ATL founder David Lat a recruiter now? And he's pretty impressive...Harvard College, Yale Law School, federal clerkship, Wachtell, AUSA, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Two associates at my firm (NYC V20) have become recruiters in the last 5-7 years. Both of them are extroverts with big professional networks. My sense is that these are important characteristics to be a recruiter because on both ends you are essentially in sales (convincing attorneys to work with you and firms to with you).

Does this apply to firm-specific recruiters? Like the people who run the summer program?

Very curious about how competitive those roles are.

[Cooldood77]

isn't ATL founder David Lat a recruiter now? And he's pretty impressive...Harvard College, Yale Law School, federal clerkship, Wachtell, AUSA, etc.

Yes he's in the Lateral Link list.

[Sackboy]

isn't ATL founder David Lat a recruiter now? And he's pretty impressive...Harvard College, Yale Law School, federal clerkship, Wachtell, AUSA, etc.

Lat has big connections so he's trying to spin them into big money. Most recruiters are law burnouts without big connections and make way worse money.

[justanotherlurker]

Two associates at my firm (NYC V20) have become recruiters in the last 5-7 years. Both of them are extroverts with big professional networks. My sense is that these are important characteristics to be a recruiter because on both ends you are essentially in sales (convincing attorneys to work with you and firms to with you).

Does this apply to firm-specific recruiters? Like the people who run the summer program?

Very curious about how competitive those roles are.

Those are apples and oranges. Recruiters like those mentioned above are generally paid solely on commission: place an attorney, you get a decent fraction of their annual pay. But you can work for hundreds of hours to do so - networking, cold calling/emailing, etc. it’s essentially a business development job. But if you have success, the pay could be quite high (see the lawsuits around when a recruiter helps a rainmakers lateral a whole department)

Legal recruiters at a firm are a HR-like job. They’re salaried (not particularly well paid) to facilitate recruiting events, interviews, throw fun parties and events, etc. Similar in that being extroverted etc helps, but not the same kind of job at all.

[Cooldood77]

Two associates at my firm (NYC V20) have become recruiters in the last 5-7 years. Both of them are extroverts with big professional networks. My sense is that these are important characteristics to be a recruiter because on both ends you are essentially in sales (convincing attorneys to work with you and firms to with you).

Does this apply to firm-specific recruiters? Like the people who run the summer program?

Very curious about how competitive those roles are.

Those are apples and oranges. Recruiters like those mentioned above are generally paid solely on commission: place an attorney, you get a decent fraction of their annual pay. But you can work for hundreds of hours to do so - networking, cold calling/emailing, etc. it’s essentially a business development job. But if you have success, the pay could be quite high (see the lawsuits around when a recruiter helps a rainmakers lateral a whole department)

Legal recruiters at a firm are a HR-like job. They’re salaried (not particularly well paid) to facilitate recruiting events, interviews, throw fun parties and events, etc. Similar in that being extroverted etc helps, but not the same kind of job at all.

How much can a recruiter make for moving an entire department? Seven figures?

[justanotherlurker]

Two associates at my firm (NYC V20) have become recruiters in the last 5-7 years. Both of them are extroverts with big professional networks. My sense is that these are important characteristics to be a recruiter because on both ends you are essentially in sales (convincing attorneys to work with you and firms to with you).

Does this apply to firm-specific recruiters? Like the people who run the summer program?

Very curious about how competitive those roles are.

Those are apples and oranges. Recruiters like those mentioned above are generally paid solely on commission: place an attorney, you get a decent fraction of their annual pay. But you can work for hundreds of hours to do so - networking, cold calling/emailing, etc. it’s essentially a business development job. But if you have success, the pay could be quite high (see the lawsuits around when a recruiter helps a rainmakers lateral a whole department)

Legal recruiters at a firm are a HR-like job. They’re salaried (not particularly well paid) to facilitate recruiting events, interviews, throw fun parties and events, etc. Similar in that being extroverted etc helps, but not the same kind of job at all.

How much can a recruiter make for moving an entire department? Seven figures?

For the most successful recruiters, definitely. According to Law.com article regarding a dismissed lawsuit concerning the lateral of a Cleary M&A rainmaker to Freshfields, the plaintiff claimed that its standard fee for a lateral partner is 25% of the partner's projected first-year compensation. The rainmaker's alleged compensation was over $10MM. And there were other partners and associates that followed him.

https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2020 ... litigation