What’s the hiring partner’s role in hiring? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I figure the recruiter’s role is limited beyond the screener process, so I was wondering what the hiring partners at law firms do for recruiting. Any insight into this?

[Anonymous User]

At my old firm, the hiring partner when it came to OCI, set the numbers of how many ppl per school was the goal/limit and also grades. Technically they also had to sign off on every candidate, but that didn't mean they interviewed them or anything, they just had a meeting with other OCI cmte ppl and signed off or raised flags. I had less insight into lateral hiring, but assume it was similar.

[nealric]

Every firm is going to to have its own management practices, but the hiring partner typically has quite a bit of influence over summer associate hiring. There will usually be some sort of committee, but it would be pretty rare for the rest of the committee to overrule the hiring partner's strong preference for or against a candidate. The hiring partner will also usually have some involvement in designing the summer program (work assignment system, larger events, etc.). How into the weeds they go is likely to depend on the size of the office. If the office is only hiring a handful of summers, the hiring partner will likely interview all the candidates. If the office is hiring 30 summers, they probably won't.

Note that while the hiring partner has quite a bit of influence over entry-level hiring, it's not typically a job taken by the most influential or powerful partner. A lot of partners don't want to deal with hiring because it's an extra administrative burden. On the other hand, it can be a way for a partner to dip their toe into firm management if that's where they see their practice going. Also worth noting that the partners selected for this duty tend to be more gregarious personalities as they serve as a public face of the firm for candidates.

Recruiter influence can vary. At some firms, they are purely administrative. All they do is event management and perhaps culling resumes according to instructions. At other firms, the head recruiter's influence may be fairly powerful. My old firm had all of the summer associate candidates interviewed by the head of recruiting, and the hiring partner would often heed their advice (my office was two doors down from theirs, so I would overhear conversations).

For lateral hiring (especially partner hiring), the process is likely going to be much more driven by department heads and firm management.

[Anonymous User]

Didn’t anticipate the depth of answers - thanks you guys!

[bigbeau]

I got hired as a 3L during last October-November. The hiring partner told me that he had made a mistake and decided not to hire anyone because of covid, which tracks with the other posts saying that basically the hiring partner has pretty broad discretion with hiring decisions, because he made it seem like it was mostly his personal decision.

[TheGreatestGunner]

Varies by firm. Some are committee based votes others give extreme discretion.