Boutique Law Firms, Job Searches, Small Law Firms

Beyond Biglaw: Small-Firm Interview Tips (Part 1)

How can small firms recruit successfully and attract top talent?

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Beyond BiglawWhen you help manage a small firm, you quickly learn that most of what you thought you knew about interviewing is best forgotten — especially if your prior experience with recruiting was at a larger firm. In my case, I was always happy to contribute to the associate recruiting process, even as a Biglaw associate. Interviewing potential summer associates and laterals, or mentoring a summer associate, gave me a sense of satisfaction that my contribution to the firm was not limited to billing hours.

While Biglaw firms no longer recruit the way they used to, particularly in terms of summer associate class size, there is still a sense that money is no object when a large law firm looks to hire someone. Whether it means paying recruiter fees, or even making the investment in maintaining a dedicated recruiting department, the money is there to find and hire the best candidates. But attempting to graft a Biglaw recruiting approach onto a small firm, even one that fancies itself a Biglaw-equivalent quality-wise, can be a recipe for disaster. And it can be costly too, especially if the firm’s leaders feel like recruiting is beneath them, or if they rely too heavily on outside recruiters at the expense of internal efforts.

Most smaller firms can’t compete with Biglaw in terms of resources. Many small firms do not have a dedicated recruiting department, and while they may receive unsolicited job applications, most do not give a thought to recruiting until it is a business imperative. The lack of a recruiting department, however, does not mean that small firms can’t recruit successfully, or attract top talent. Rather, the onus is on firm leadership to approach recruiting with the same attention to detail as the firm exhibits when handling client matters.

While many small firms are cautious, and try to expand only when absolutely necessary, at some point most small-firm partners find themselves interviewing lateral (or entry-level) candidates. Again, approaching these interviews with the same attitude as one would bring to a Biglaw interview is probably not a good idea. Plus, thinking that way actually disadvantages the candidate in front of you, as they deserve an opportunity to explain what about working for your small firm excites them, and why they feel like a small firm is a strong alternative to an equivalent Biglaw gig, for example.

So what should a small-firm interviewer keep in mind to maximize the chances of success in attracting compatible and qualified talent? Let’s start at the beginning. Well before the interview, the interviewer has the responsibility of determining exactly why the firm is looking to bring on additional help. Doing so requires an understanding of the firm’s needs and its market position, along with a humble assessment of how the interviewee likely views the opportunity. If you don’t know why you are interviewing a particular candidate, ask. One would hope that small firms looking to hire can at least justify the decision to do so internally, so don’t be shy.

It is also helpful to consider whether the candidate will help the firm become more attractive to potential or current clients — the key reason to hire any lawyer — and how they will help further those basic goals of any law firm. In short, interviewers should never consider interviewing just a task to get through, but internalize the experience as an opportunity to benefit the firm in a concrete way. That means preparation, and potentially the need to discuss the interview with your other partners, even before it actually happens. Actually reviewing the candidate’s application packet helps as well.

There are also some mechanical differences between a small-firm interview and a Biglaw one. Many times, Biglaw candidates have a strong sense of the financial package (salary, benefits, performance incentives) they will be offered on acceptance to the firm. Because of the variability of compensation at small firms, however, it is not unusual for candidates to have serious unanswered questions about what they are signing up for pay-wise. At the same time, it is a waste of everyone’s time if expectations about compensation are unreasonable on the candidate’s end. So compensation can, and should, be one of the initial topics of conversation in a small-firm interview. (If you work at a firm employing 50 or fewer lawyers, please take Above the Law’s solo and small-firm compensation survey, so ATL can bring greater transparency to this topic.)

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Accordingly, the interviewer must be prepared, even if they are not the ultimate decision-maker on the candidate, to address compensation — how it works at the firm, where the candidate would slot in, and so on. There is nothing uncouth or distasteful about addressing this issue at a small-firm interview, when one of the greatest challenges for smaller firms involves finding quality talent at a price the firm can afford.

Even if compensation is not addressed first, the small-firm interviewer must be prepared to ask pointed questions about the candidate’s ability to contribute financially to the firm right away. Again, some forethought can be helpful, since the likelihood that a candidate will be able to contribute right away depends in no small measure on the firm’s actual need to make the hire in the first place. In any event, the candidate should be able to answer for the interviewer how they will be able to help the firm save money, such as if their experience will allow them to do the work of two more junior lawyers, for example. Even if the candidate is an experienced one, but not being brought on with any portable business (or expected to contribute from a marketing perspective), they should be able to explain how their skills will help the firm better staff or support larger, more profitable matters. Or at least detail how their contribution will free up the firm’s partners to focus on bringing in those larger, more profitable matters in the first place.

As we all know, money matters, especially if a firm wants to stick around, and at a small firm, everyone must contribute to the bottom line. For that reason, the prepared small-firm interviewer will not shy away from putting the candidate through their paces on financial issues, whether with respect to compensation or expected financial contribution. Candidates that actually want to work at a small firm will welcome such dialogue, and will embrace the opportunity to demonstrate their willingness to contribute from day one. Money is a threshold issue, and small-firm interviewers need to take their jobs as gatekeepers of the firm’s limited assets very seriously, even if that means focusing earlier than expected on compensation. Their will be plenty of time for niceties and polite conversation with the winning candidate later.

Next week, we will continue with a look at some of the non-financial issues that can arise in the small-firm hiring process. In the meantime, please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.

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Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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