An Alternative Career for Legal Professionals
28 Jul 2016
Michael Minogue
If you asked recruitment consultants if they always wanted to be a recruiter, the majority would tell you that they fell into it rather than deliberately choose it as a career. However, you ask the same recruiters if they’d change jobs now, then the majority would tell you no! This is simply because recruitment offers a high-energy, competitive career that is unlike any other.
Many recruiters come from a variety of backgrounds but the one thing that they have in common is their drive and passion to succeed. It also helps if you have a background in the area in which you’ll be recruiting. Two recruiters who are the perfect example of this trend are Brightwater’s own Michael Minogue. Michael is a qualified solicitor and has been a recruiter with Brightwater since 2014. In 2018, he was promoted to Manager of the legal division.
Here are just a few of their reasons why legal professionals can make the best recruiters.
- Superb communication skills In the same way that a solicitor / barrister has to listen to their client and then communicate their cases to others in a way that is persuasive, knowledgeable and concise, recruiters too need excellent communication skills to do their job. The ability to interact with time-pressed and well educated professionals is key in recruitment as is the ability to manage expectations and requirements of both your candidates and clients.
- The ability to multitask As a legal professional, you are constantly juggling several cases at once and need to be able to focus your work in a structured manner. As a recruiter, you’re expected to be working on several recruitment assignments at the same time with varying skill level requirements. The ability to multitask is essential.
- Time management skills Managing deadlines is as vital in recruitment as it is in law. Employers want their key hire in as soon as possible so managing a tight schedule of interviews with ever changing requirements is an inevitable part of the job. Prioritising tasks and assignments is crucial.
- Organisational skills Recruiters are constantly spinning several assignments at once and the ability to remember a particular candidate out of the hundreds you meet and match them up with a client is key. Lawyers & barristers understand the importance of organising files so that any small detail is available to them at a click of a finger.
- Patience Any recruiter will tell you that you need to have the patience of Job to deal with suddenly hard-to reach clients and candidates who just remember a whole list of “must-haves” right at negotiation stage. Anyone coming from a legal background will have this quality in abundance.
- Negotiation skills The negotiation skills that you hone throughout your qualification and experience as a legal professional will stand you in good stead when it comes to negotiating remuneration packages for your candidates.
Of course, if you’re going to be working in the legal recruitment market, that’s even better as you’ll be bringing your in-depth legal knowledge to the table as well as a readily available pool of contacts from your own personal network. Recruitment is a hugely competitive market so should appeal to all those legal eagles out there!
If you would like some information on working in the legal recruitment market, please contact Michelle Magner on (01) 6621000 or email your details to [email protected]