Being a good legal recruiter is very difficult work. If you take the average graduating class at a law school of 500 people, I would estimate that 70% of the graduates could be outstanding lawyers if they apply themselves. Conversely, I would estimate that only 1% of the people who graduate from law school could be good legal recruiters (i.e. 5 of the 500 people could potentially be good legal recruiters).
A good legal recruiter needs to:
- have persuasive skills,
- be likeable,
- have a good pedigree in most cases to understand the nuances of top level firms,
- needs to have an outstanding work ethic,
- be entrepreneurial,
- be a risk taker,
- be diligent about learning information about the market,
- be good at understanding people,
- have a high level of concentration,
- enjoy working with people,
- have a natural inclination to be in the legal profession,
- be thick-skinned, and
- be intuitive.
