Using An Independent Recruitment Consultancy

Using An Independent Recruitment Consultancy

The legal recruitment market is particularly buoyant at the moment as the signs of economic recovery gain momentum. Even during the last couple of years when the general view was that the service sector was suffering, we have been busier than ever.

We consider ourselves to be a major player within the sector, but the growth of the larger agencies and the recent acquisitions of a number of our competitors by huge corporations has altered the landscape significantly. The question is, how will these changes affect the legal profession?

This is a difficult question to answer definitively. Certainly, it is to be expected that the newly absorbed agencies will adapt their modus operandis to a greater or lesser extent, depending upon the level of conformity with existing policies, practices and procedures demanded by their parents. This is not to suggest that Big Brother-style corporate dicta will crush the very business principles which made these agencies worth buying in the first place. But it is possible that candidates may feel alienated or intimidated by the prospect of dealing with a huge organisation even if the core legal recruitment business and its staff continue to operate in fundamentally the same way as before the acquisition. It is also possible that many recruitment managers and partners who demand a strong personal relationship with the key consultants within the various agencies, will feel that they can no longer expect to receive quite the individual attention they enjoyed before. It was certainly my experience as in house lawyer with a large organisation some years ago, that a many layered commercial structure sometimes creates both a degree of impersonality and a system of hoops and hurdles which needs to be overcome before effective action can be taken.

We at Lipson Lloyd-Jones have found that the number of candidates registering with us has increased over recent months and many are saying that they like dealing with an agency which they feel provides a completely personalised service while still offering the full range of UK and global opportunities. That is not to suggest that a larger agency cannot or does not provide a personalised service, but lawyers, quite rightly, demand individual attention and they know they will receive it with a smaller independent.

With 13 consultants, offices in London and Manchester and a global network of associate companies, we are hardly small, but neither are we beholden to particular employers and we can therefore provide impartial and comprehensive market coverage. Like most of the other independents, we have a strong Web presence offering a fully interactive site which is updated daily, enabling candidates to search the current vacancy database and apply for suitable vacancies.

Clearly, it would be foolish to write off the larger agencies as dinosaurs with no feel for the profession, generating little customer affection or loyalty. Indeed, size matters to many candidates and clients. For example, there is the kudos factor and the feeling that a large company must surely have more inside knowledge, more expertise and more crucial contacts than an independent. While that is patently not the case (indeed, candidates often tell us that the range of options we offer is wider and more thoughtfully compiled than those provided by some of the larger agencies), it is a question of perception.

Smaller agencies do not want to give the impression that they are little cottage industries scuttling away on the fringes of the action, while larger agencies do not want to look like arrogant monoliths with no interest in the less sexy business! Accordingly, agencies are forever ‘selling’ the image of themselves which they perceive to be most likely to generate business. However, the reality of what they provide is what matters. While smaller agencies cannot compete with the marketing budgets of the larger companies, they can and do compete, and often defeat them, on the quality of service they offer. The vast majority of our business is generated by referral rather than advertising, and we, like any commercial organisation, regard that as the mark of our success. Quality of service in a sector as demanding as the legal profession is everything and agencies large and small will continue to thrive provided they continue to meet and exceed the standards expected of them.

marian@ll-j.com