What characteristics should I look for in a legal recruiter?

Being a good legal recruiter is very difficult work. If you take the average graduating class at a law school of 500 people, I would estimate that 70% of the graduates could be outstanding lawyers if they apply themselves. Conversely, I would estimate that only 1% of the people who graduate from law school could be good legal recruiters (i.e. 5 of the 500 people could potentially be good legal recruiters).

A good legal recruiter needs to:
 
  • have persuasive skills,
  • be likeable,
  • have a good pedigree in most cases to understand the nuances of top level firms,
  • needs to have an outstanding work ethic,
  • be entrepreneurial,
  • be a risk taker,
  • be diligent about learning information about the market,
  • be good at understanding people,
  • have a high level of concentration,
  • enjoy working with people,
  • have a natural inclination to be in the legal profession,
  • be thick-skinned, and
  • be intuitive.