Page 24 - Dallas Vol 6 No 2

A Guide to Eliminate Unethical ILegal Recruiting Practices
BY FREDERICK SHELTON
have been a legal recruiter for them. Discovery of recruiter poach- of ces. Six months and one day later, over 25 years and am now the ing is the exception, not the rule they can poach from the same of- CEO of our rm. I started out One exception – a lawyer who dis- ce. Actually, they can poach anyone with Big Recruiting back in covered his large recruiting rm was from anywhere in your organization the ’90s. Back then, legal re- attempting to poach his best people at any time, as long as they pretend
cruiters would exaggerate portable – was prominent attorney Michael they “reasonably believe” that you books of business, poach from cli- Nunez, the Las Vegas managing won’t mind.
ents and send attorneys to literally any hellhole that would pay them a commission.
THEY STILL DO.
Within a year of starting, I quit Big Recruiting to escape the unethical legal recruiting practices – quotas, bureaucracy and a business model that rewarded bad practices. Sound familiar?
Obviously not all legal recruit- ers still engage in such practices but by the time you nish reading this article, it will be easy to gure out whether your recruiter is screw- ing you and exactly what you can do about it.
POACHING FROM CLIENTS
There are still legal recruiters who poach from clients who have paid them fees.
At the larger rms this can be al- most unavoidable as their recruiters are only allowed to work a single market.
For example, I worked the San Di- ego market exclusively for a time. If my current clients weren’t hiring, I had a choice – work with other cli- ents and poach from my current cli- ents – or starve. Thus, yesterday’s client becomes today’s talent pool.
My next employer was a bit more Machiavellian. I didn’t poach from my personal clients. Instead, other recruiters in our of ce did so. That way if asked, I could honestly say “I have never recruited from your rm!”
Did clients nd out? Rarely. I was trained to tell placed attorneys that in exit interviews, say a friend recruited
partner at Murchison & Cumming. It turned out, everyone in the recruiting rm except the recruiter who made the placement, was attempting to poach his best people.
“With the exception of one rm, our experience with legal recruiters has been extremely negative.” The frustration in his voice is obvious. “The people we’ve paid to recruit for us, have then turned around a tried torecruitourbestpeople.Evenfrom the same of ce! Where is the loyal- ty? Where are the ethics?”
BETRAYAL AS THE ACCEPTED NORM: THE NALSC “CODE OF ETHICS”
Long ago, the largest legal recruit- ing rms formed the National Asso- ciation of Legal Search Consultants or NALSC. They made a nice logo, website, membership program etc.
But they faced a dilemma. How could they normalize the continued practice of stealing talent from cli- ents who actually paid them fees? They came up with an ingenious and carefully crafted legal recruiting “Code of Ethics.” It reads as follows:
“No search rm shall solicit any attorneyfromtheof ceofanemploy- er in which it has made a placement for a six-month period following that placement, unless the search rm reasonably believes such a restric- tion is not required by the employer.”
If this is unclear to you, allow me to edify. On the same day that the recruiting rm collects a $100,000 check from your organization, they consider it “ethical” to begin poach- ing your most valuable associates and partners from any of your other
How good has the NALSC been at duping clients into voluntarily allow- ing recruiters to engage in such can- nibalistic practices? I just received a contract from an AmLaw 100 rm that read as follows: “Your organiza- tion agrees to abide by the NASLC Code of Ethics, Articles I and II.”
Think about that. AmLaw and Mid-sized rms have not only ac- cepted such practices, they have ac- tually memorialized their acquies- cence to such practices in their own contracts.
EXAGGERATING PORTABLE BUSINESS
Recruiters are often trained to tell partners they must be “Optimistic” and “Aggressive” when stating how much business they will bring. I was trained to tell partners that if they didn’t enhance their book, and then had a good year, they would be un- derpaid.
However it is important to note that as often as not, it is the partner who has exaggerated their book. Whether ego or avarice, it happens often.
WHAT FIRMS CAN DO ABOUT IT
No. 1: De ne a Reasonable, Firm-Wide Recruiting Prohibi- tion. If your recruiting agreement (or theirs) mentions the NALSC Code of Ethics, it’s time to change your contracts. Require recruiters to sign a ve-year, rm-wide recruiting pro- hibition from the time of the most recent payment. Truly ethical rms will be happy to do so.
No. 2: De ne Consequences for Poaching After Receipt of a Fee. If a rm you’ve paid a fee, recruits
ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · DALLAS· VOL. 6 NO. 2 24