We are here to help you with everything we’ve got and want to help you. We send you many positions and firms because we believe in and get behind you. We do not speak with you at the beginning of most searches because we want to see your commitment before we start working on your file—once you start believing in yourself and helping us help you—you will speak with us. We will assign people dedicated to speaking with you and helping you find the right fit with the law firms interested in you.
We can guarantee you with almost 100% certainty that no legal recruiting firm has ever worked so hard to support your career and that the odds are no one ever will again. You can view our actions in a negative or positive light—it is up to you. We are more than available to speak with you at any time. We respond to emails quickly. We have a team of over 100 people contributing to your search success and doing the work we believe is most important behind the scenes.
If you want to understand and learn how much we care, you deserve to understand the logic behind our decisions with your candidacy.
From our perspective, sending you so many openings and firms is a tremendous undertaking. Here is why:
If you did your search through another recruiting firm, several things that differentiate us from them would occur in all cases:
The first contact BCG Attorney Search generally is with you contacting us and asking for help. Attorneys contact us because of our reputation in the market and because they understand how good we are. We do not need to, nor do we want to, chase down candidates. Good lawyers do not have to do this either: Clients come to them.
Harrison Barnes, our CEO, personally reviews every candidate in BCG Attorney Search. If you are accepted into our firm, it means that he believes you are highly likely to benefit from being represented by us. He wants to put the weight of the company 100% behind you.
We do not reach out and immediately start talking to and wooing people we want to represent. We make immediate employment recommendations to them but do not call and attempt to convince them to apply to firms, tell them how special we are, and more. This would waste valuable resources on attorneys who may never approve firms, may not be committed to their search, and expect to be sold. We prefer to put our initial resources into helping people who will commit to us and our system.
If you are interested in moving, we believe you will approve our recommendations—especially the initial ones. If you are not interested in moving or are on the fence, this hurts our credibility with firms that do not like it when we send wishy-washy, uncommitted candidates into interviews. You need to show us you are serious first. We are not in the business of convincing you to do something you are not committed to.
The depth of content, jobs, and more we have for our candidates speaks for itself. We have an internal candidate center where you can log in and see your status with your entire search—review and approve our recommendations, find new recommendations, upload your documents, and more. If you would rather work with someone without these profound capabilities, that is up to you.
Chasing you down does not make sense if you do not want to help yourself.
Most hiring and interview decisions are made based on your practice area and where the firm is. They are also made based on information important to firms we collect in the intake form. No other recruiting firm understands practice areas better than us or takes the time to ask you so many questions before they work with you. We’ve got this.
Once you get interviews, you are assigned a personal legal placement professional. This person will speak with you frequently, respond to emails quickly, ensure you are prepared for interviews, and speak with law firms on your behalf before and after the interview.
This person will not ghost you, be unavailable, or be unavailable. They are there for you once you commit to yourself.
Once you start working with other legal recruiting firms, if you do not get interviews, they will most likely stop helping you, sending you firms, or trying to help you. They do not know why you are not getting interviews—because they do not understand the market—but they certainly do not want to do the work to keep helping you.
BCG Attorney Search does not always get you interviews on the first try, second try, third try, fourth try, or tenth try. The market is what it is. Certain practice areas have overcapacity and are slowing down, certain types of firms may not like your experience, and certain markets may be more competitive than others—who knows? Understanding an economic market is something economists, hedge fund managers, stockbrokers, and others have proven over time they cannot do.
We believe we understand the legal market better than anyone. When we start your search, we do our best to get you into the best firms with openings first. Many of these openings are old, and the firms may have started interviewing people weeks ago. Law firms do not close openings until they have interviewed all their existing applicants, discussed who to make offers to, made an offer, and given their top applicant time to respond, and then—and will not interview more people until this process has played out. Law firms generally hire from the applicants who come along in the first few days. It is a lot of work bringing people in who applied later, and regardless of the individual or the legal recruiting company, it is difficult to alter this dynamic. It is for this reason that it is often much easier to get interviews when you have been approving jobs for some time (because they are new and we get them out to you immediately), then when we do, you are far more likely to get interviews than when applying to older jobs.
Your experience with other recruiting firms is likely based on the cold calling you in response to a job opening. In New York and other large cities, the second there is an opening, these recruiting firms rush to call people—hence, you may get multiple calls the day and day after the job comes out about the same job. Recruiters know that the faster they get you to apply, the more likely you will get an interview. When you apply to our firm, we have active jobs, but some may have been active for weeks while the law firms sort through, interview, discuss, and make offers to the initial batch of resumes received in the first few days the job is live. If you are committed to working with us, we will send you new jobs as they become live, and you will have much better odds—especially since we will be ready to go with your resume, cover letter, and other materials. All you need to do is log in, and you are done.
We know that if we keep trying, we will eventually break through. You may be disappointed that things do not work out initially and think we are doing something wrong; however, that could not be further from the truth—we are trying to get you considered an in for jobs and opportunities long ago were forgotten by other legal recruiters. It is not fair to think we are not doing our jobs well because we are not getting you immediate interviews: This is not our fault and is the nature of how this process works when we are sending you lots of positions where other people have been interviewing, being discussed and have offers being made for weeks.
Most legal recruiters become legal recruiters because they do not like practicing law or are from sales backgrounds and never practiced law. Some are former administrators of the legal industry that did not like that either.
Attorneys that did not like practicing law often did not like it because they were not good at it. They may not have been good at it because they did not like the required detailed hours or were simply not suited for it. However, being a legal recruiter is being an advocate for someone—and that is precisely what you need to be a good legal recruiter. Being a good legal recruiter also requires you to be exceptional at research, not give up on this profession, be committed to it, be willing to progress, and not give up when it is not easy.
Most legal administrators are bureaucrats and not advocates. Bureaucrats are better than advocates—they have other skills well suited to navigating an organization’s politics, managing people, and running pre-existing systems. There is nothing wrong with this. The world needs this. They are not advocates, however, and they tend not to be advocates. They do not need to be. They are managers who work within a pre-existing system. This often makes them interested in looking for a certain type of person and leaving it at that. On one occasion, we hired an administrator from a large law firm. She had horrible luck as a recruiter until I learned she was rejecting and not working with candidates with a certain grade point from certain schools and applying an impossible standard to candidates assigned to her. She was a nice person who majored in public relations at a state university in Florida.
However, she was taught administrative skills at a large law firm that she applied to everyone without understanding that this approach was unsuitable for all firms.
People from sales backgrounds sell people, places, and things. Their skill is not research, trying alternate approaches, and more. Their skill is getting a person, bonding with them by saying the right things and understanding their audience, and then selling someone else on them. They do not need to understand what you do or much about what law firms do. They are taught a bit about the profession and apply what they do to certain types of candidates and legal employers. They do their best with what they know and have. However, they cannot research and understand you in the way you need to be understood. They are advocates, but only to the extent they understand to sell what they got. They sell what they have sold in the past because this is what they know and understand. When new people or situations present themselves, they cannot help you and will not.
At BCG Attorney Search, we believe the way traditional recruiters and how the system operate is profoundly flawed. We are not flying by night in this business because we are interested in an alternative career or seeing how things will work out. We are not in it because we want “freedom” to set our hours, not work as hard, or anything else. We are here and committed because this is a mission and something we believe is the highest and most important calling for the legal profession.
We believe certain criteria are important to understanding you and what you offer. We have learned over decades that certain things are important to law firms, candidates, and doing our jobs as well as possible. Because of this, we do everything we can to stick with a system that works for candidates, firms, and the legal profession. This does not make all law firms and candidates happy, or they trust us, but it is part of a system that empowers all involved.
BCG Attorney Search is a machine—not a legal recruiter or a legal recruiting firm.
There is nothing wrong with this approach. Recruiting firms have used these approaches for decades. We are not being critical because there is nothing wrong with a business method that pays the bills.
Virtually every recruiting firm in the market relies on a small subset of job openings rather than firms. Most of these firms purchase lists of openings from one or two providers that send these firms opening almost exclusively from AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms. They also solicit candidates from the same AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms. These recruiting firms all compete for the same candidates to represent these firms. That is why every time they get an opening, they call and email the same people repeatedly—these are the only ways they have to make placements. Access to these openings costs them subscription fees each month. Access to the biographies and contact information of candidates from these firms costs them a bit more, but that, too, is what they use.
It takes a little money and resources to get openings and candidates from the same firms as everyone else. It also is not that complex, representing the same candidates to the same firms as everyone else. There are big firms and prominent firm candidates. Matching these two sets is like putting a square peg in a square hole. Anyone can do this, but some do this better than others.
BCG Attorney Search is much different. We have over 150 employees that help us do this, a large team of people contacting firms on your behalf, over 20 years of research that is updated daily, and we do in-depth, personalized research for every candidate we work with. This is a lot of work, costs money, and takes time. We find firms, jobs, and more that no one else even knows about because we are not relying on a third-party provider for a small subset of jobs. Where other firms can send you the same jobs everyone knows about, we can send you jobs and firms no other legal recruiter knows anything about. Many recruiters essentially “fly by night” and work when these large firms do well in good economies and then disappear when the market in your practice area is slow, you get senior and have no business, or they find people that are it easier to get jobs than you.
It also takes a ton of work to follow up with you with emails, phone calls, texts, push notifications, weekly additions of firms to your account, weekly reports, and more. In addition to following up with you, we do the same thing with firms. We call them, send reports, email and follow up with them, put information in their online accounts, and more.
The cost of researching firms, maintaining online dashboards and firms for you, and following up with you and firms is substantial. It also takes a ton of money and time to produce content, webinars, and other information to help you with interviews, discuss your goals and aspirations with firms and personalize your applications. This is money that no other recruiting firm is willing to invest in you—and we are.
You can either appreciate this or think something is wrong with us—or not have confidence in yourself—that is your choice. You can let us invest in you, do the work yourself, or pursue the impossible task of looking for another company that will. You will not find this because nothing like this exists.
In almost all cases, they cannot fit you in a round hole if you are not a round peg. Why? Because that is all they understand. There are generally two types of candidates that most recruiting firms represent: (1) candidates at big firms in popular practice areas with 1-6 years of experience and (2) partners at big firms with at least a few million dollars in business. It takes between 2 and 4 hours to learn how to recognize these firms. There is ongoing training that most recruiting firms teach about how to convince you to apply to these firms and convince you to go on interview and lots of training to convince you to accept these offers, but that is where the emphasis lies.
At BCG Attorney Search, we put a lot of effort into finding jobs and firms for you, whatever your background—we are always learning and getting better each day—but we are not so narrow-minded and incapable that we only represent a small slice of all attorneys in the market. Even if you are the most qualified attorney, we will have countless options and firms you will not find elsewhere.
We must prepare customized applications for each firm, send these firms to you for approval, send emails and make calls to get you to approve the firms, send emails and call firms to get them interested in you, and put our credibility on the line each time we do this. If we tell a law firm without openings that we believe in you and they should be interested in you, we are doing this because we believe you—not because we are “spamming” you and trying to hurt you. If anything, we are hurting our credibility by doing this if you do not believe we have your back and are trying to help you; or we are trying to interest a firm in someone who does not trust our interest in them.
Because we are working with so many firms and trying so hard to help you, we also have to take risks with you that other recruiting firms never would: (1) We have to risk that you will steal our firms and openings and hurt us and our candidates by effectively stealing from someone trying to help you; and (2) we risk that smaller, less trustworthy firms with unscrupulous morals will go around our back and play games (either stealing you outright or asking you to apply in other means) to cheat us. Thus, we do a ton of the work only to be cheated by the firms and candidates we are trying to help build their businesses or get jobs. That is sad and the sort of risk we will take to help you. No other recruiting firm would take this risk or trust you and law firms so much: That is why other recruiting firms are only willing to send you a few openings--so they can watch over you and law firms like an aggressive watchdog so they do not get ripped off.
We trust you and do so because we know this is what we would want; we are trying to get you a job, and we believe in you. We are doing the right thing trying to help you and law firms and do so at the risk of our benevolent actions being taken advantage of.
There is a reason for this: They do not know how to or have the resources to do so. We know law firms and are willing to do whatever it takes to find you a job. We monitor and study over 25,000 law firms and have a database that cost us over $100,000,000 to create and maintain over the past two decades. This allows us to research practice areas of firms that are growing, firms that hire without openings, understand market demand, and take risks other recruiting firms would not.
Just think of how much time it takes us to find these firms, create customized application materials for them for you, and more. This is a massive amount of work. We put our credibility on the line each time we try to place you with one of these firms without openings because we essentially say to these firms: “Sorry to interrupt you … someone amazing just came along, and we think they could help you. We really believe in them. Could you please consider them?”
Why do we send you firms without openings? We do this because you are more likely to get a job with them. Over 85% of our placements are with firms that do not have openings. This is because you are the only applicant for these jobs. When you are the only applicant, you are not competing with anyone else for the chance to work at the firm. This means that you are more likely to get into the firm than someone who is one of 100+ applicants to apply. Suppose you are in a group of people applying for an opening. In that case, you run the substantial and real risk that (1) the firm is already interviewing people and likely has made at least one candidate an offer (or is likely to do so shortly), (2) that a better candidate than you has applied (which could be a possibility).
Most firms hire from the applicants that come along the first few days. When a law firm has an opening, they typically lose money because work needs to be done.
We do not care where you are or where you want to go. Except for law firms in Florida and California (that will only hire you if you have taken the bar exam), we will get behind you and push to help you wherever you want to work.
Most legal placement firms in New York City will only represent you if you want to work in New York City; most placement firms in Chicago will only represent you if you’re going to work in Chicago, and so on. They do not have the resources, research, or ability to represent you on other markets (unless they subscribe to services that will send them Am Law 100 and Am Law 200 openings for a few hundred dollars a month—and if they do, they will only help you with the
largest firms).
BCG Attorney Search can represent you in any market, and we know what we are doing. All we do are law firm placements, and take them extremely seriously.
We monitor and understand over 300 legal practice areas in every geographic area of the United States. While other legal recruiting firms may understand major practice areas (real estate, corporate, commercial litigation, patent, for example), we understand the subsets of these practice areas (real estate leasing, etc.) and hundreds of practice areas in all locations. In addition, we know hundreds of other small practice areas that other recruiting firms cannot possibly begin to understand (personal injury, personal automobile injury, trust and estates litigation, family law—and subsets of this such as adoption law, for example). Our ability to understand you means we know you better than anyone in the market. We also bring immense expertise and understanding at a granular level that other recruiting firms cannot even possibly begin to understand. It takes many years to understand practice areas as we do. Because we understand you, we can place you because we know every practice area and the firms that are experts in these practice areas that will hire you.
Other legal recruiting firms are experts in placing attorneys in large firms when the economy is doing well in the same five or six large practice areas (commercial litigation, corporate, patent, and real estate, for example). They specialize in placing attorneys in the same predictable type of firms are practice areas. That works if this is all you are interested in. However, we can place you at firms in any economy—and any size law firm. That is why we send you openings at large and small law firms. We know what we are doing and operate at a level compared to other legal recruiting firms that are equivalent to the understanding an ant has of the world compared to you. The difference is beyond profound—we can tell you about opportunities at various firms and practice areas our competitors will never understand. You will get more opportunities in more firms, practice areas, and locations. We are on it. Smaller and larger firms mean more opportunities for partnership, employment, and growth opportunities. These benefits can change your life and career. They also mean we can find you places to work in any economy—regardless of your practice area. In poor economies, small and midsized firms often have more work because companies that traditionally rely on large firms send them to work to save money. In addition, small law firms are constantly emerging when they break off from large or midsized firms. Firms are continually starting; we watch for this and make them our clients. We can help you when others have no idea how to do so.
So, what sets us apart at BCG Attorney Search is our unwavering commitment to you, our candidates. We work tirelessly to provide you with the best opportunities and to support you every step of the way. With our extensive knowledge and resources, we can offer you a service that no other recruitment firm can. We are proud to be different and believe our differences make us the best at what we do.
About Harrison Barnes
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive, while achieving results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.
If you want to understand and learn how much we care, you deserve to understand the logic behind our decisions with your candidacy.
From our perspective, sending you so many openings and firms is a tremendous undertaking. Here is why:
- The firms we put on your personalized notification list must be researched and matched to your background.
- We have a team of 100+ people researching firms to match them with our candidates.
- We have over two decades of proprietary research of firms that have interviewed, hired, and requested people in your practice area, locations of interest, and experience level.
If you did your search through another recruiting firm, several things that differentiate us from them would occur in all cases:
1. Other Recruiting Firms Start Their Relationship with You with a Phone Call that is Often Persuasive in Nature (Either a Cold Call or to Convince You They Have Special Relationships and Exclusives). BCG Attorney Search Does Not Do This.
The first contact BCG Attorney Search generally is with you contacting us and asking for help. Attorneys contact us because of our reputation in the market and because they understand how good we are. We do not need to, nor do we want to, chase down candidates. Good lawyers do not have to do this either: Clients come to them.
Harrison Barnes, our CEO, personally reviews every candidate in BCG Attorney Search. If you are accepted into our firm, it means that he believes you are highly likely to benefit from being represented by us. He wants to put the weight of the company 100% behind you.
We do not reach out and immediately start talking to and wooing people we want to represent. We make immediate employment recommendations to them but do not call and attempt to convince them to apply to firms, tell them how special we are, and more. This would waste valuable resources on attorneys who may never approve firms, may not be committed to their search, and expect to be sold. We prefer to put our initial resources into helping people who will commit to us and our system.
If you are interested in moving, we believe you will approve our recommendations—especially the initial ones. If you are not interested in moving or are on the fence, this hurts our credibility with firms that do not like it when we send wishy-washy, uncommitted candidates into interviews. You need to show us you are serious first. We are not in the business of convincing you to do something you are not committed to.
The depth of content, jobs, and more we have for our candidates speaks for itself. We have an internal candidate center where you can log in and see your status with your entire search—review and approve our recommendations, find new recommendations, upload your documents, and more. If you would rather work with someone without these profound capabilities, that is up to you.
2. After You Start Approving Firms Consistently and Get Interviews, You Will Speak with a Highly Trained Legal Placement Professional and Attorneys Trained to Prepare You for Interviews for the Rest of Your Search with Us.
- Before you approve firms, you can call our office any time at 310-444-000. We will speak with you and provide you with any information you need.
- You can contact our firm via email at any time.
- If we text you, you can respond to texts.
- You can also log in to your account with us and, review firms, our communications with you, and respond to that.
Chasing you down does not make sense if you do not want to help yourself.
Most hiring and interview decisions are made based on your practice area and where the firm is. They are also made based on information important to firms we collect in the intake form. No other recruiting firm understands practice areas better than us or takes the time to ask you so many questions before they work with you. We’ve got this.
Once you get interviews, you are assigned a personal legal placement professional. This person will speak with you frequently, respond to emails quickly, ensure you are prepared for interviews, and speak with law firms on your behalf before and after the interview.
This person will not ghost you, be unavailable, or be unavailable. They are there for you once you commit to yourself.
3. Once We Commit to Representing You, We Do Not Give Up on You—Regardless of Your Initial Success (or Lack Thereof).
Once you start working with other legal recruiting firms, if you do not get interviews, they will most likely stop helping you, sending you firms, or trying to help you. They do not know why you are not getting interviews—because they do not understand the market—but they certainly do not want to do the work to keep helping you.
BCG Attorney Search does not always get you interviews on the first try, second try, third try, fourth try, or tenth try. The market is what it is. Certain practice areas have overcapacity and are slowing down, certain types of firms may not like your experience, and certain markets may be more competitive than others—who knows? Understanding an economic market is something economists, hedge fund managers, stockbrokers, and others have proven over time they cannot do.
We believe we understand the legal market better than anyone. When we start your search, we do our best to get you into the best firms with openings first. Many of these openings are old, and the firms may have started interviewing people weeks ago. Law firms do not close openings until they have interviewed all their existing applicants, discussed who to make offers to, made an offer, and given their top applicant time to respond, and then—and will not interview more people until this process has played out. Law firms generally hire from the applicants who come along in the first few days. It is a lot of work bringing people in who applied later, and regardless of the individual or the legal recruiting company, it is difficult to alter this dynamic. It is for this reason that it is often much easier to get interviews when you have been approving jobs for some time (because they are new and we get them out to you immediately), then when we do, you are far more likely to get interviews than when applying to older jobs.
Your experience with other recruiting firms is likely based on the cold calling you in response to a job opening. In New York and other large cities, the second there is an opening, these recruiting firms rush to call people—hence, you may get multiple calls the day and day after the job comes out about the same job. Recruiters know that the faster they get you to apply, the more likely you will get an interview. When you apply to our firm, we have active jobs, but some may have been active for weeks while the law firms sort through, interview, discuss, and make offers to the initial batch of resumes received in the first few days the job is live. If you are committed to working with us, we will send you new jobs as they become live, and you will have much better odds—especially since we will be ready to go with your resume, cover letter, and other materials. All you need to do is log in, and you are done.
We know that if we keep trying, we will eventually break through. You may be disappointed that things do not work out initially and think we are doing something wrong; however, that could not be further from the truth—we are trying to get you considered an in for jobs and opportunities long ago were forgotten by other legal recruiters. It is not fair to think we are not doing our jobs well because we are not getting you immediate interviews: This is not our fault and is the nature of how this process works when we are sending you lots of positions where other people have been interviewing, being discussed and have offers being made for weeks.
4. Each Recruiter in Most Recruiting Firms Has a Different System for Getting People Jobs and Working with Them. BCG Has a Standardized Process that is Highly Individual to You and Has Been Developed with Tens of Thousands of Candidates Over Decades.
Most legal recruiters become legal recruiters because they do not like practicing law or are from sales backgrounds and never practiced law. Some are former administrators of the legal industry that did not like that either.
Attorneys that did not like practicing law often did not like it because they were not good at it. They may not have been good at it because they did not like the required detailed hours or were simply not suited for it. However, being a legal recruiter is being an advocate for someone—and that is precisely what you need to be a good legal recruiter. Being a good legal recruiter also requires you to be exceptional at research, not give up on this profession, be committed to it, be willing to progress, and not give up when it is not easy.
Most legal administrators are bureaucrats and not advocates. Bureaucrats are better than advocates—they have other skills well suited to navigating an organization’s politics, managing people, and running pre-existing systems. There is nothing wrong with this. The world needs this. They are not advocates, however, and they tend not to be advocates. They do not need to be. They are managers who work within a pre-existing system. This often makes them interested in looking for a certain type of person and leaving it at that. On one occasion, we hired an administrator from a large law firm. She had horrible luck as a recruiter until I learned she was rejecting and not working with candidates with a certain grade point from certain schools and applying an impossible standard to candidates assigned to her. She was a nice person who majored in public relations at a state university in Florida.
However, she was taught administrative skills at a large law firm that she applied to everyone without understanding that this approach was unsuitable for all firms.
People from sales backgrounds sell people, places, and things. Their skill is not research, trying alternate approaches, and more. Their skill is getting a person, bonding with them by saying the right things and understanding their audience, and then selling someone else on them. They do not need to understand what you do or much about what law firms do. They are taught a bit about the profession and apply what they do to certain types of candidates and legal employers. They do their best with what they know and have. However, they cannot research and understand you in the way you need to be understood. They are advocates, but only to the extent they understand to sell what they got. They sell what they have sold in the past because this is what they know and understand. When new people or situations present themselves, they cannot help you and will not.
At BCG Attorney Search, we believe the way traditional recruiters and how the system operate is profoundly flawed. We are not flying by night in this business because we are interested in an alternative career or seeing how things will work out. We are not in it because we want “freedom” to set our hours, not work as hard, or anything else. We are here and committed because this is a mission and something we believe is the highest and most important calling for the legal profession.
We believe certain criteria are important to understanding you and what you offer. We have learned over decades that certain things are important to law firms, candidates, and doing our jobs as well as possible. Because of this, we do everything we can to stick with a system that works for candidates, firms, and the legal profession. This does not make all law firms and candidates happy, or they trust us, but it is part of a system that empowers all involved.
BCG Attorney Search is a Machine—Not a Legal Recruiter.
Legal recruiters in most firms are limited by their backgrounds, individual skills, and motivations. These recruiters may be interested in you, may lose interest—who knows? They may understand what you do, or they may not. They may take a vacation, work when they want, or be available, or they may not—who knows. They may have a system for working with people, or they may not. They may be committed to the profession, or they may not be. Who knows? Regardless, whatever legal recruiter you use, you will be limited by their skills, systems, motivation, commitment, abilities, resources, time, and more.BCG Attorney Search is a machine—not a legal recruiter or a legal recruiting firm.
- Our system involves collecting as much information about you as you will provide.
- Attracting people with our expertise and not persuasion.
- Aggressively research the law firm market every hour of every day—for you and those who will come after you.
- Creating compelling application materials for you.
- Making sure that we constantly follow up with you and law firms.
- Giving you options throughout the United States.
- Not giving up on you. Following up for you.
- Making sure that we understand the sorts of work all firms do.
- Ensuring that we are following up with firms.
- Not giving up on you.
- Doing everything we can to give you more places to work.
- Being accessible to you and law firms at all times.
- Talking to you and law firms once interest has been established by other sides and attempting to make a fit. Running a 150+ enterprise with different positions ensures we maintain the files of every candidate and firm we work for.
- Constantly improving every hour of every day.
- Constantly creating compelling content to help you.
- Never quit and give up on yourself.
There is nothing wrong with this approach. Recruiting firms have used these approaches for decades. We are not being critical because there is nothing wrong with a business method that pays the bills.
5. BCG Attorney Search Is the Only Recruiting Firm with The Resources to Represent You Fully to The Market.
Virtually every recruiting firm in the market relies on a small subset of job openings rather than firms. Most of these firms purchase lists of openings from one or two providers that send these firms opening almost exclusively from AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms. They also solicit candidates from the same AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms. These recruiting firms all compete for the same candidates to represent these firms. That is why every time they get an opening, they call and email the same people repeatedly—these are the only ways they have to make placements. Access to these openings costs them subscription fees each month. Access to the biographies and contact information of candidates from these firms costs them a bit more, but that, too, is what they use.
It takes a little money and resources to get openings and candidates from the same firms as everyone else. It also is not that complex, representing the same candidates to the same firms as everyone else. There are big firms and prominent firm candidates. Matching these two sets is like putting a square peg in a square hole. Anyone can do this, but some do this better than others.
BCG Attorney Search is much different. We have over 150 employees that help us do this, a large team of people contacting firms on your behalf, over 20 years of research that is updated daily, and we do in-depth, personalized research for every candidate we work with. This is a lot of work, costs money, and takes time. We find firms, jobs, and more that no one else even knows about because we are not relying on a third-party provider for a small subset of jobs. Where other firms can send you the same jobs everyone knows about, we can send you jobs and firms no other legal recruiter knows anything about. Many recruiters essentially “fly by night” and work when these large firms do well in good economies and then disappear when the market in your practice area is slow, you get senior and have no business, or they find people that are it easier to get jobs than you.
It also takes a ton of work to follow up with you with emails, phone calls, texts, push notifications, weekly additions of firms to your account, weekly reports, and more. In addition to following up with you, we do the same thing with firms. We call them, send reports, email and follow up with them, put information in their online accounts, and more.
The cost of researching firms, maintaining online dashboards and firms for you, and following up with you and firms is substantial. It also takes a ton of money and time to produce content, webinars, and other information to help you with interviews, discuss your goals and aspirations with firms and personalize your applications. This is money that no other recruiting firm is willing to invest in you—and we are.
You can either appreciate this or think something is wrong with us—or not have confidence in yourself—that is your choice. You can let us invest in you, do the work yourself, or pursue the impossible task of looking for another company that will. You will not find this because nothing like this exists.
6. No Other Legal Recruiting Firm Can Represent the Vast Majority of Attorneys in The Market Because All They Understand Are Big Firm Attorneys and Big Firms Matching Different Backgrounds, Seniorities, Practice Areas, And Markets.
In almost all cases, they cannot fit you in a round hole if you are not a round peg. Why? Because that is all they understand. There are generally two types of candidates that most recruiting firms represent: (1) candidates at big firms in popular practice areas with 1-6 years of experience and (2) partners at big firms with at least a few million dollars in business. It takes between 2 and 4 hours to learn how to recognize these firms. There is ongoing training that most recruiting firms teach about how to convince you to apply to these firms and convince you to go on interview and lots of training to convince you to accept these offers, but that is where the emphasis lies.
At BCG Attorney Search, we put a lot of effort into finding jobs and firms for you, whatever your background—we are always learning and getting better each day—but we are not so narrow-minded and incapable that we only represent a small slice of all attorneys in the market. Even if you are the most qualified attorney, we will have countless options and firms you will not find elsewhere.
7. Representing You to So Many Firms Takes an Incredible Amount of Work That No Legal Recruiting Firm Can or Would Be Willing to Do.
We must prepare customized applications for each firm, send these firms to you for approval, send emails and make calls to get you to approve the firms, send emails and call firms to get them interested in you, and put our credibility on the line each time we do this. If we tell a law firm without openings that we believe in you and they should be interested in you, we are doing this because we believe you—not because we are “spamming” you and trying to hurt you. If anything, we are hurting our credibility by doing this if you do not believe we have your back and are trying to help you; or we are trying to interest a firm in someone who does not trust our interest in them.
8. We Are Trying to Help You and The Firms We Promote You To. We Are Willing to Trust You, Put Our Faith in You, And Firmly Believe You Will Not Cheat Us. Other Recruiting Firms Will Only Do This If They Put Getting Paid and Not Your Interests First.
Because we are working with so many firms and trying so hard to help you, we also have to take risks with you that other recruiting firms never would: (1) We have to risk that you will steal our firms and openings and hurt us and our candidates by effectively stealing from someone trying to help you; and (2) we risk that smaller, less trustworthy firms with unscrupulous morals will go around our back and play games (either stealing you outright or asking you to apply in other means) to cheat us. Thus, we do a ton of the work only to be cheated by the firms and candidates we are trying to help build their businesses or get jobs. That is sad and the sort of risk we will take to help you. No other recruiting firm would take this risk or trust you and law firms so much: That is why other recruiting firms are only willing to send you a few openings--so they can watch over you and law firms like an aggressive watchdog so they do not get ripped off.
We trust you and do so because we know this is what we would want; we are trying to get you a job, and we believe in you. We are doing the right thing trying to help you and law firms and do so at the risk of our benevolent actions being taken advantage of.
9. There Are Virtually No Legal Recruiting Firms That Will Represent You to Law Firms Without Jobs.
There is a reason for this: They do not know how to or have the resources to do so. We know law firms and are willing to do whatever it takes to find you a job. We monitor and study over 25,000 law firms and have a database that cost us over $100,000,000 to create and maintain over the past two decades. This allows us to research practice areas of firms that are growing, firms that hire without openings, understand market demand, and take risks other recruiting firms would not.
- Over 95% of most recruiting firms would not even know these firms are there or have the resources to get you out to them.
- No legal recruiting firm has a database that even comes close to ours. Between our companies LawCrossing and BCG Attorney Search, we have spent more time studying job openings in the legal market and firms (millions of hours over the past 25 years) than anyone in the world. Most recruiting firms need databases because they only understand current job openings from AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms. The difference is like comparing the capabilities of a skateboard to a fighter jet.
Just think of how much time it takes us to find these firms, create customized application materials for them for you, and more. This is a massive amount of work. We put our credibility on the line each time we try to place you with one of these firms without openings because we essentially say to these firms: “Sorry to interrupt you … someone amazing just came along, and we think they could help you. We really believe in them. Could you please consider them?”
Why do we send you firms without openings? We do this because you are more likely to get a job with them. Over 85% of our placements are with firms that do not have openings. This is because you are the only applicant for these jobs. When you are the only applicant, you are not competing with anyone else for the chance to work at the firm. This means that you are more likely to get into the firm than someone who is one of 100+ applicants to apply. Suppose you are in a group of people applying for an opening. In that case, you run the substantial and real risk that (1) the firm is already interviewing people and likely has made at least one candidate an offer (or is likely to do so shortly), (2) that a better candidate than you has applied (which could be a possibility).
Most firms hire from the applicants that come along the first few days. When a law firm has an opening, they typically lose money because work needs to be done.
10. Recruiting Firms Will Only Represent You to Firms in Some US Markets.
We do not care where you are or where you want to go. Except for law firms in Florida and California (that will only hire you if you have taken the bar exam), we will get behind you and push to help you wherever you want to work.
Most legal placement firms in New York City will only represent you if you want to work in New York City; most placement firms in Chicago will only represent you if you’re going to work in Chicago, and so on. They do not have the resources, research, or ability to represent you on other markets (unless they subscribe to services that will send them Am Law 100 and Am Law 200 openings for a few hundred dollars a month—and if they do, they will only help you with the
largest firms).
BCG Attorney Search can represent you in any market, and we know what we are doing. All we do are law firm placements, and take them extremely seriously.
11. No Other Legal Recruiting Firm in The World Understands You, Your Practice Area, And the Job Market Like We Do and Can Represent Attorneys in Any Practice Area and Location.
We monitor and understand over 300 legal practice areas in every geographic area of the United States. While other legal recruiting firms may understand major practice areas (real estate, corporate, commercial litigation, patent, for example), we understand the subsets of these practice areas (real estate leasing, etc.) and hundreds of practice areas in all locations. In addition, we know hundreds of other small practice areas that other recruiting firms cannot possibly begin to understand (personal injury, personal automobile injury, trust and estates litigation, family law—and subsets of this such as adoption law, for example). Our ability to understand you means we know you better than anyone in the market. We also bring immense expertise and understanding at a granular level that other recruiting firms cannot even possibly begin to understand. It takes many years to understand practice areas as we do. Because we understand you, we can place you because we know every practice area and the firms that are experts in these practice areas that will hire you.
12. No Other Legal Recruiting Firm in The World Can Place You at Small to Midsized Firms (Or Larger Ones) In Any Economy, Regardless of Your Practice Area or The Location You Want to Work.
Other legal recruiting firms are experts in placing attorneys in large firms when the economy is doing well in the same five or six large practice areas (commercial litigation, corporate, patent, and real estate, for example). They specialize in placing attorneys in the same predictable type of firms are practice areas. That works if this is all you are interested in. However, we can place you at firms in any economy—and any size law firm. That is why we send you openings at large and small law firms. We know what we are doing and operate at a level compared to other legal recruiting firms that are equivalent to the understanding an ant has of the world compared to you. The difference is beyond profound—we can tell you about opportunities at various firms and practice areas our competitors will never understand. You will get more opportunities in more firms, practice areas, and locations. We are on it. Smaller and larger firms mean more opportunities for partnership, employment, and growth opportunities. These benefits can change your life and career. They also mean we can find you places to work in any economy—regardless of your practice area. In poor economies, small and midsized firms often have more work because companies that traditionally rely on large firms send them to work to save money. In addition, small law firms are constantly emerging when they break off from large or midsized firms. Firms are continually starting; we watch for this and make them our clients. We can help you when others have no idea how to do so.
So, what sets us apart at BCG Attorney Search is our unwavering commitment to you, our candidates. We work tirelessly to provide you with the best opportunities and to support you every step of the way. With our extensive knowledge and resources, we can offer you a service that no other recruitment firm can. We are proud to be different and believe our differences make us the best at what we do.
About Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes is a prominent figure in the legal placement industry, known for his expertise in attorney placements and his extensive knowledge of the legal profession.
With over 25 years of experience, he has established himself as a leading voice in the field and has helped thousands of lawyers and law students find their ideal career paths.
Barnes is a former federal law clerk and associate at Quinn Emanuel and a graduate of the University of Chicago College and the University of Virginia Law School. He was a Rhodes Scholar Finalist at the University of Chicago and a member of the University of Virginia Law Review. Early in his legal career, he enrolled in Stanford Business School but dropped out because he missed legal recruiting too much.
Barnes' approach to the legal industry is rooted in his commitment to helping lawyers achieve their full potential. He believes that the key to success in the legal profession is to be proactive, persistent, and disciplined in one's approach to work and life. He encourages lawyers to take ownership of their careers and to focus on developing their skills and expertise in a way that aligns with their passions and interests.
One of how Barnes provides support to lawyers is through his writing. On his blog, HarrisonBarnes.com, and BCGSearch.com, he regularly shares his insights and advice on a range of topics related to the legal profession. Through his writing, he aims to empower lawyers to control their careers and make informed decisions about their professional development.
One of Barnes's fundamental philosophies in his writing is the importance of networking. He believes that networking is a critical component of career success and that it is essential for lawyers to establish relationships with others in their field. He encourages lawyers to attend events, join organizations, and connect with others in the legal community to build their professional networks.
Another central theme in Barnes' writing is the importance of personal and professional development. He believes that lawyers should continuously strive to improve themselves and develop their skills to succeed in their careers. He encourages lawyers to pursue ongoing education and training actively, read widely, and seek new opportunities for growth and development.
In addition to his work in the legal industry, Barnes is also a fitness and lifestyle enthusiast. He sees fitness and wellness as integral to his personal and professional development and encourages others to adopt a similar mindset. He starts his day at 4:00 am and dedicates several daily hours to running, weightlifting, and pursuing spiritual disciplines.
Finally, Barnes is a strong advocate for community service and giving back. He volunteers for the University of Chicago, where he is the former area chair of Los Angeles for the University of Chicago Admissions Office. He also serves as the President of the Young Presidents Organization's Century City Los Angeles Chapter, where he works to support and connect young business leaders.
In conclusion, Harrison Barnes is a visionary legal industry leader committed to helping lawyers achieve their full potential. Through his work at BCG Attorney Search, writing, and community involvement, he empowers lawyers to take control of their careers, develop their skills continuously, and lead fulfilling and successful lives. His philosophy of being proactive, persistent, and disciplined, combined with his focus on personal and professional development, makes him a valuable resource for anyone looking to succeed in the legal profession.
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive, while achieving results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.
Harrison Barnes does a weekly free webinar with live Q&A for attorneys and law students each Wednesday at 10:00 am PST. You can attend anonymously and ask questions about your career, this article, or any other legal career-related topics. You can sign up for the weekly webinar here: Register on Zoom
Harrison also does a weekly free webinar with live Q&A for law firms, companies, and others who hire attorneys each Wednesday at 10:00 am PST. You can sign up for the weekly webinar here: Register on Zoom
You can browse a list of past webinars here: Webinar Replays
You can also listen to Harrison Barnes Podcasts here: Attorney Career Advice Podcasts
You can also read Harrison Barnes' articles and books here: Harrison's Perspectives
Harrison Barnes is the legal profession's mentor and may be the only person in your legal career who will tell you why you are not reaching your full potential and what you really need to do to grow as an attorney--regardless of how much it hurts. If you prefer truth to stagnation, growth to comfort, and actionable ideas instead of fluffy concepts, you and Harrison will get along just fine. If, however, you want to stay where you are, talk about your past successes, and feel comfortable, Harrison is not for you.
Truly great mentors are like parents, doctors, therapists, spiritual figures, and others because in order to help you they need to expose you to pain and expose your weaknesses. But suppose you act on the advice and pain created by a mentor. In that case, you will become better: a better attorney, better employees, a better boss, know where you are going, and appreciate where you have been--you will hopefully also become a happier and better person. As you learn from Harrison, he hopes he will become your mentor.
To read more career and life advice articles visit Harrison's personal blog.
