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Education Juris Doctor, University of Virginia Law School
Bachelor of Arts, University of Chicago
Details
Harrison Barnes has elevated the practice of legal recruiting to its very highest level through some very simple beliefs. While the statement that a search firm is "different" may sound like a cliche, Harrison does indeed lead a search firm that is different from any major American legal recruiting firm. Not only does BCG Attorney Search get more attorneys jobs inside law firms than any other search firm in the world, but through the separate but affiliated companies Harrison has founded, over 10,000 attorneys find new positions each year. This has been accomplished by adhering to four core beliefs that permeate everything BCG Attorney Search does.
First, Harrison and the recruiters at BCG are of the belief that the sole purpose of their careers is to get attorneys jobs and change lives. The course of leadership that Harrison has established for BCG Attorney Search is based on the belief that his life and the careers of BCG Attorney Search recruiters should be shaped by the pursuit of the end result that an attorney finds the position he or she is seeking in the market. Our culture is based on finding the "very best fit" for our candidates, helped along by frequent conferences, sitting our recruiters all in the same office, weekly phone conferences between Harrison and the firm's recruiters and setting high goals. A culture of getting attorneys jobs and an intense commitment from our recruiters are part of what defines our firm. Most of our recruiters that were formerly practicing attorneys work harder at BCG Attorney Search than they did when practicing law.
Second, Harrison believes that recruiters who serve attorneys in their job search should carry out their jobs with the same level of intensity as the attorneys they serve. Indeed, Harrison believes the practice of legal recruiting is of a higher level than the practice of law due to the fact that recruiters are representing attorneys. With very rare exceptions, every recruiter that Harrison has ever hired has been homegrown with "zero" recruiting experience before joining BCG Attorney Search. Harrison has maintained this hiring philosophy because he believes that most other recruiting firms are based on profit motives, employ "scheming" recruiters who do not have their candidates' best interest in mind, and do not perform at nearly the same level or have the same passion for their candidates. To this day, Harrison himself is directly involved in the training of new BCG recruiters. This thorough training period lasts for months and consists of not only the business side of recruiting, but also the work ethic, dedication, and commitment that Harrison demands. The foremost core value that Harrison maintains is that BCG ''must get jobs for attorneys,'' and he gets this point across to every single one of our recruiters during his or her training.
Third, Harrison believes that recruiters should be focused in order to do their jobs well. For that reason, BCG Attorney Search only does law firm placements and is focused on the constant pursuit of excellence in this field. Recruiters are taught how to study law firms, how to interpret data in the market and how to anticipate various law firm openings with an uncanny degree of precision. Harrison's focus on only doing law firm placements sets BCG Attorney Search apart. The platform Harrison has set for BCG Attorney Search is enormously successful and allows the company to make more law firm placements than any other recruiting firm in the United States. In fact, for the past several years, BCG Attorney Search has averaged more than one placement per day throughout the nation.
Fourth, Harrison has set extremely high ethical standards for his recruiters. Far from a profit-driven motive, Harrison runs BCG Attorney Search to be at the forefront of ethics. Numerous times, Harrison has rebuffed the merger efforts of other search firms whose ethics and lack of focus were not consistent with his vision for the premier legal recruiting firm in the United States. In addition, Harrison has set extremely high standards for the recruiters at BCG Attorney Search, where ethics are debated on a daily basis and even a perceived ethical violation is not tolerated at any cost. This focus on ethics is set so high because Harrison believes that lawyers who represent lawyers should hold even a higher standard for themselves than typical attorneys.
At the University of Chicago, Harrison was one of the top students in his graduating class and even co-taught a college-level class during his undergraduate tenure. At Virginia, Harrison was an editor of the Virginia Law Review and the Managing Editor of the Journal of Law and Politics. Following law school, Harrison clerked for United States District Judge Robert H. Cleland and was an associate in the New York City-based law firm of Dewey Ballantine and the Los Angeles-based law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver and Hedges. Harrison has also taught professional responsibility at Whittier Law School. Harrison practiced both litigation and transactional law when he was in private practice. Currently, he serves as Area Chair for the University of Chicago Admissions Office for the Los Angeles region. In addition to his work for BCG Attorney Search, Harrison is also the founder of two other prominent legal related employment companies. Harrison is a frequent lecturer on attorney job search strategies, often called upon to be an expert witness in high-profile cases, and has authored numerous articles, as well as the first edition of the BCG Attorney Search Guide to Class Rankings at America's Top 50 Law Schools. Through his work with BCG Attorney Search and other companies Harrison has started, Harrison is responsible for getting more attorneys jobs than any other single individual in the United States. Extremely passionate about getting attorneys jobs, Harrison has instilled in BCG Attorney Search and its recruiters that they are capable of getting a job for any attorney in the United States.
''I really appreciate your daily columns. After being stressed out about being unemployed since February, I just accepted a wonderful offer that I am really excited about by following your advice. Thank you so much, and I want you to know that your efforts have a concrete effect on people's lives.''
- S. A.
Dear Harrison,
Thank you for your email below, which is extremely helpful.
I didn't expect that you can be so kind as to show me the right path for the start of my career. This attests to the high ethinical standard and professionalism of you and your firm. I will try to spread the good words about your firm among my peers in my future career and hopefully we can cooperate somewhere down the road.
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