| Associate Resources - Recruiter Resources |
 |
Thoughts on BCG Attorney Search
By Harrison Barnes, Esq.
As we grow and our organization experiences various changes, I think it is important that everyone here understand what we are doing as a group. Whether or not we realize it, these philosophies are something that guide us on a daily basis.
The BCG Attorney Search Philosophy. The success we have achieved—individually and collectively as a firm—is attributable to our shared concept of what a recruiting firm should be. It is based on four simple principles. First, achieving excellence in everything we do. Hands down, we need to be the absolute best at what we do. Second, despite day-to-day business differences, everyone here is a family. Third, every attorney's contact with BCG Attorney Search should be a meaningful experience. Fourth, this business is something that is run for the long-term so that it can continue to grow and adapt in all economic environments.
I know that organizations often pay lip service to these types of ideas. These ideas underscore how this business has been run to date and this is how it will always be run. It is not run "fast and loose" and it is not run for the benefit of any one individual but for everyone here and for our long-term interests as a group. This level of conservatism and focus upon group—and not individuals—is something that benefits us all.
First, achieving excellence in everything we do is about a lot of things. It is about:
- how the business is branded;
- how the business relates with law firms and candidates;
- how well the business markets itself;
- how well the business is continually improving itself;
- the benefit of having multiple people in multiple areas throughout the United States creating a "buzz" for the business;
- how well the business is led and whether the business and its leaders are constantly pushing the recruiters and the business in the right direction;
- how people feel about working here (from the highest-paid recruiter to the lowest-paid service people);
- how financially responsible the business is;
- how well it advertises (more than $10,000 a week on an average in advertising alone);
- the quality of its database and computer programmers;
- the quality of the people that gather and post jobs;
- the quality of its designers;
- the quality and shared vision of its recruiters;
- the quality of its writers;
- the quality of its accountants and bookkeepers;
- the quality of its faxes and word processors;
- how innovative the business is in the steps it takes;
- how well we police the quality of the work that is going out in multiple cities;
- how well we educate attorneys and law firms about the placement market;
- the quality of articles that we write-and how many we write;
- how honest we are with the world;
- how innovative we are in making submissions;
- how focused our recruiters are; and,
- staying in touch with all of our recruiters on an ongoing basis, to ensure they are focused and continue to grow.
Most importantly, though, it is about how well we support one another and about how seriously we all consider ourselves as part of a profession of the highest order. We realize that this profession creates an obligation on our part to attorneys everywhere.
Most great law firms were founded on a drive for excellence—as a firm. They achieved success because of the way the lawyers practiced as a firm. The organizations grew because the organizations valued their attorneys' legal skills, not just because they were good at selling themselves. In my opinion, there is no other legal recruiting firm out there like BCG Attorney Search that shares our drive for excellence at the highest level.
Despite the wide array of personalities, the vision for BCG Attorney Search is something of a throwback to this older law firm concept. The quality of our work and our profession is paramount. We want to reward recruiters for the quality of their work and their efforts on behalf of the profession as a whole. Here, we should have a cooperative environment where the pursuit of excellence is more important than the pursuit of individual glory and wealth.
This philosophy works. That is how this business has been run to date and this is how it will always be run. We hope to continue to expand and get better at what we do and this philosophy of excellence will be behind everything we do—whether we have one office or 10 offices.
Second, everyone here should be supportive of one another. For recruiters not working in our main office in Los Angeles, it is probably difficult to envision the level of support you are receiving. As an organization, we have literally run through millions of dollars in placement fees in the process of establishing who we are, learning what works and what does not, and doing multiple things on a daily basis to ensure that we stand out from the crowd. The things we do are almost too numerous to mention. The point of everything we are doing is to ensure that the sum of what we do as a group is far, far greater than what any of us could achieve individually.
As a group, we can do many, many things we could not do alone. We can afford to pay several people to post ads and refresh them on a daily basis. We can afford to make programming changes to our database on a daily basis. We can afford to market with newsletters and books to tens of thousands of people. We can redesign websites, write countless articles for the public, refer people to other (related) businesses that allow us to help even more people and afford even more advertising, pay numerous people to enter in (manually and 24 hours a day) every resume we receive via email and the Internet, support the founding of new offices and support offices in slow periods, have our accounting done—and more.
A third thing about BCG Attorney Search is so important and fundamental to who we are, that a lot of recruiters do not understand it, either here or outside this firm. When attorneys find BCG Attorney Search, the experience is likely to be meaningful for them. On our website, they will get all the information they could ever need. If they apply to one of our jobs, they will continue to receive useful information throughout their career. If we cannot help them, we will ensure that we refer them to a source we know that can help them get a job. We know these businesses can help get attorneys a job because we worked to start them to correct deficiencies in the current market.
This is more significant than you may realize. As a group of individuals we are all motivated toward the greater good. We can all feel good about the work that we do because just by existing, we are making a meaningful difference in the world through both our thoughts and actions. There is no other recruiting firm in the world that takes the step of ensuring that everyone who contacts them gets a job.
Finally, BCG Attorney Search is built for the long-term in all respects. By having multiple offices and being supported by multiple businesses, we are working to ensure that we can withstand economic changes and continue to grow. The business is also not dependent upon any one recruiter—or even itself—to continue and grow.
A Role in Shaping a Work In Progress. We are a work in progress. Each of us is part of shaping the firm that we will become. We each are working to create a legacy that will make a significant long-term footprint on the world's legal landscape.
BCG Attorney Search is less than a decade old. This is a young recruiting firm by any standard. We have achieved a lot in a short period of time—probably more than any other legal recruiting firm in history. We have achieved all of this because we are entrepreneurial, willing to think differently, and actually care about our role in the world and the lives of attorneys everywhere.
I wanted to share these ideas with you about the company so you can have some understanding about what we are doing and what we want to become.
Email Article to Colleague
| Download Article as PDF
|  Printable Version
"We want to hear your thoughts. Please comment on this article (below)!"
Contact Our Recruiters Now!
| Enjoy this Article? Sign Up for the BCG Attorney Search Newsletter and receive new BCG Attorney Search articles as they become available. |
|
|
Browse Attorney Jobs by Location and Practice Area
Partner Jobs
|
|
|
Related Articles:
|
|
