The BCG Attorney Search Difference

We Focus Our Efforts on Getting Jobs and Not Getting Resumes. Our focus is on research and not on cold calling and soliciting talent from our clients' firms. While we certainly do recruit in the traditional sense to some degree, we have found that the majority of our active candidates have come from word of mouth or referrals from existing candidates. We cannot understand how other recruiting firms can put so much effort into cold calling when cold calling does so little to help their existing candidates. Any free time our recruiters have is spent learning more about their markets and gathering jobs. This is a constant and ongoing task that benefits our candidates. At our firm, even a recruiter representing 3-4 candidates at one time would not possibly have the time for cold calling because, the way we see our jobs, there is always additional work the recruiter could be doing on behalf of their existing candidates.

Additionally, it is a little-known fact that once a recruiter starts actively soliciting talent from one of its clients (and firms do find out), the law firm will often not do business with him/her again and will automatically reject any candidates the recruiter sends it in the future. Our recruiters are focused on doing good work for their candidates, and doing good work means actively avoiding the solicitations of attorneys from law firms. It is axiomatic that we are able to get better results for our candidates by not having ongoing disputes with our clients.

We Only Make Permanent Law Firm Placements. Most legal-recruiting firms will make any placements they can, including in-house positions, contract positions, or even secretarial positions. At BCG Attorney Search, we only make permanent law firm placements. Rather than spread our recruiters' energies and time over several areas, we focus them specifically on the permanent law firm market. This will enable each recruiter to gain a higher level of expertise regarding the personalities, trends, and cultures within every firm. This is a very large task, and making placements in other areas would only serve to make recruiters less effective at placing attorneys in permanent law firm positions. It is this narrow focus that makes us the best legal-placement firm in the country.

Why don't we place in-house positions as well? It is a well-known fact that in-house positions can take several months and often as long as a year to fill. A great proportion of the candidates who approach recruiting firms for in-house positions end up going to law firms, and many recruiting firms are very profitable because they are able to interest attorneys in the prospect of in-house employment and place them in law firms when the attorneys become impatient or learn that the in-house salary is tens of thousands less than he/she needs to even pay his/her mortgage. We don't consider this to be a service to a candidate, and our business is helping candidates choose the best career option, whether it involves staying at a current job, moving to another firm, changing practice areas, or relocating across the country-or the world.

We Are a Research-Based Organization. Thorough, extensive research is required in order to ensure a successful employment opportunity for an exceptional candidate. Each recruiter must be an expert on firms' cultures and environments and an expert on a candidate's qualifications, skills, level of education, and ability to be a productive member of a given firm. One way we used this research to help firms and candidates alike was by writing The BCG Attorney Search Guide to Class Ranking and Law Review Admission at America's Top-25 Law Schools in early 2001. Since then, this publication has become an annual task for us, and it's now even sold commercially on Amazon.com. This guide has succeeded in becoming an essential reference for many law firms, and the work put in (six months of research and hundreds of interviews of law schools and recent graduates) has paid off extremely well.

Why did we do this? What better way to demonstrate our in-depth knowledge and experience with candidates and law firms than to make our knowledge indispensable to both? Our dedication to research benefits every party to our services. Candidates can rely on us as a resource on the current employment market, the specific firms' cultures and environments, and even the chances of success with a new career opportunity. Firms know that if we have decided to represent a candidate in his/her job search, that candidate is of the highest caliber, with stellar credentials and excellent relevant skills. It is these high standards and inside track to the legal market that have rocketed our integrity, credibility, and professional reputation far beyond any other professional search firm's.

We Are Motivated. Unlike most recruiting firms, we don't just move lawyers around for short-term rewards. We actually make placements that work for both our candidates and our clients. Our candidates often tell us that without our help, they never could have located the positions we found for them. In fact, our candidates often say that contacting BCG Attorney Search was one of their smartest career moves. They believe that we have made a meaningful difference in the quality of their lives. One reason candidates place such a high value on our services is that we always start by giving them an honest assessment of their prospects in their current firms. We avoid focusing on our own short-term rewards, which many other organizations do. In fact, on many occasions, we have counseled attorneys to stay with their current firms when they were thinking about leaving.

BCG Attorney Search's professional search consultants include first-rate attorneys who are committed to providing the highest quality of service to our clients and candidates. Making the best placements possible is simply part of our firm culture. We put our enthusiasm, integrity, and insight to work, along with our extensive network of contacts, to provide a uniquely personal and professional approach to recruiting and placement. The relationships we have cultivated are founded on principles of honesty, trust, and responsiveness to the needs of our clients. Unlike many other search firms, we take the time to understand each client's and candidate's needs. We also try to gain a comprehensive understanding and assessment of each candidate's educational background, legal experience, personal qualities, and professional goals. The depth of our involvement in the search process results in effective and long-lasting placements.

Learn what happens when you work with a BCG Attorney Search legal placement professional.

Quality. We take great pride in the quality of our work product. This means that when a firm sees one of our candidates, it is seeing the finest professional presentation possible. Our professional career consultants help prepare our candidates for their interviews. All of this results in a level of service to our clients and candidates that is unrivaled elsewhere. When our candidates show up for their interviews, they are both prepared and focused. Our clients feel that they basically know and understand our candidates before they first meet them during their interviews.

Up-to-Date Knowledge of the Legal Market. We have more law firm listings than any other recruiting firm in the United States. Period. Because we go to such extraordinary lengths to keep our job listings current, we believe that if there is a law firm opening that's suitable for one of our candidates in a market we serve, we will know about it.

Technologically, we are on the cutting edge. Each day, on behalf of every U.S. firm and candidate we serve, we employ complex software (linked to an online research service) to add up-to-date news stories to our database. Our professional recruiters have access to our database via the Internet from virtually anywhere in the world. These same recruiters constantly supply us with critical new information and job listings.

Given our numerous contacts and extensive research, we often know more about the organizations we serve than many of the attorneys who already work there. We are also often privy to inside knowledge about the firms that we serve. This information helps us know when good placements can be made. It also helps our candidates decide if they are really ready to move.

Respect. We believe that our practice of truly getting to know our candidates helps us create and locate opportunities for them that will usually exceed those within their current organizations. In some instances, we've moved candidates into firms where they received a "lock" on partnership status. We've been able to help other outstanding candidates move out of their existing firms and increase their salaries by 50 percent or more. More important, we have successfully moved candidates out of law firm positions they were no longer comfortable in or that were holding them back from performing at their highest levels. We then placed them in firms that shared their cultural outlooks and value systems. In truth, we really do consider these to be among our most important placements. BCG recognizes that successful placements make it possible for candidates to enjoy and succeed at their work. No attorney wants to just go through the motions in a firm environment that's unpleasant on one or more levels. Obviously, successful placements are equally important to the organizations we serve because they make the difference between good and bad hires.

Whether you are a client or a candidate, we invite you to contact us so that you can learn even more about what makes BCG such a truly different and effective legal-search firm.