[00:00:00] Good morning or afternoon, depending on where you are. And this is actually one of my favorite topics. Yeah. We had a meeting yesterday at BCG and and I make a lot of placements personally I make I don't know, probably, three about, on average, about three placements a week which is a lot.
[00:00:19] And and I, we calculated the results of all the placements that I've made at Albert critters of Maine. And in my case 95% of the placements that I've made so far this year have been at firms without openings. And our best recruiters were all between 80 and 90%. And the recruiters that were doing the worst were below 50%.
[00:00:42] The point is that, the, and I just want to make this very early on in the presentation before I get into it, that if you're not looking at firms that don't have openings in your job search you're killing yourself because I literally have made I make probably more placements in my position than [00:01:00] anyone in this industry and probably anyone in history and the big secret.
[00:01:05] And there's not really too much of a secret is that most of this is at firms without openings. The other thing I'll say that's very, very interest. And I want to bring to your attention is because the market is so large out there. Many times the candidates that I work with don't even get positions in Intel or start getting interviews until they've started approving firms had done it several times and often that means on the third and the 10th round, even, so they're, they might approve four firms.
[00:01:32] One's two firms, the other and the 10th round is when a lot of times they start getting really good results. So there's I'm really teaching you some important stuff today. And this is if there's anything you ever learned about job search, this is probably the most important presentation you'll ever watch.
[00:01:47] And after I do the presentation today, I will talk to you or answer questions, but this is what I'm teaching today is something that has, is honestly saved countless careers of people that I worked [00:02:00] with has helped countless people advance as in, is really gonna be a game changer.
[00:02:05] If you understand it, most people don't. And I don't mean that in a negative way But this advice is so contrary to what people believe and so forth that that they don't. So I just want you to think about that. If I've made, 40 placements so far this year if 95% of those have been with firms that have openings versus I would only make 5% of those placements, which would have been two placements, which would have been a decent year for a recruiter.
[00:02:30] And that's how most of them are. I want you to under, so I hope you understand this and I will get started. Several years ago there was a third year attorney working in the us attorney's office in Hawaii. And he contacted me looking for a position and he'd gone to Harvard law school.
[00:02:44]He'd done very well there. And he wanted to come back to California and he went and like many attorneys he had submitted this resume to 15 of the best law firms in Los Angeles but had not received a single interview after all those interviews. And [00:03:00] he was very depressed. He couldn't understand.
[00:03:02]You know why he couldn't get an interview? He applied to, the big firms have people from Harvard that did well there would apply to, and he was depressed and and thought that, maybe he'd made the wrong choice. I don't think he'd worked in a law firm ever just going to the us attorney's office right out of law school.
[00:03:18] And he didn't work as a us attorney. I think he worked for a program in the us attorney and and he said, I thought it was smarter for me to apply to firms on my own. And and he just believed that he understood things and and didn't need a recruiter and he could do everything on his own.
[00:03:33] And so I got involved with the search and within two weeks he had interviews at 10 of those 15 firms that he'd applied to. And it might even have been it was about, it might even have been a few more. He got interviews on almost every one of 'em just saying 10 out of 15, but almost every single one and he couldn't believe it.
[00:03:50]And then firms were so interested that, some of them, I was playing phone tag with them and one of them, I played phone tag with, I don't know, six or seven times to schedule the interviews. And he also got several [00:04:00] offers and then. And then he wrote me, which I should have saved.
[00:04:04] And I don't know why I didn't. I maybe I don't know, but I, yeah, he wrote me a long thank you letter and told me how grateful he was and long kind of two-page, so I should post it online and and I never did. And then I unfortunately didn't save it, but then you said I'm grateful as family was for all the work I'd done.
[00:04:20] And so you ask yourself, what did I do that made all this happen? If he sent the same, if he applied to the exact same firms, Why was I able to get him an interview? And what did I do that he couldn't do himself because honestly there's nothing magical about what I do.
[00:04:36]I understand something, but there's nothing magical. And why was I able to get him interviews at firms? He couldn't get on his own. And that's what I'm going to talk to you about in this presentation today. And I'm going to tell you what I did that got him so many offers and really what it comes down to is understanding how the game works and everything's a game getting a job's a game your career's a game everything's a game.
[00:04:57] And and and what I did is I [00:05:00] made him seem desirable and and I made him seem desirable now. And like he was desirable in the past, but I'm going to talk about it more in this presentation. And the thing I would say is most attorneys never get a lot of offers. Most of them don't get a lot of offers when they're interviewing for their first job, unless they're at the very top of their class at a great law school and maybe get several offers for be a summer associate.
[00:05:21]Most attorneys don't get a lot of offers when they're interviewing laterally, unless the economy is really good. And most people get, one offer that was really how it works. Some get two and a few more, but most don't get a lot of offers. And the reason is because many times they don't understand the importance of how to market themselves to make themselves seem desirable.
[00:05:39] And everybody's desirable by the way, if you market yourself properly and there are exceptions, but people that get a lot of offers, but most don't. And some of the attorneys that do get a lot of offers and I meet them. Occasionally not that often, but they can often do so without trying very hard at all.
[00:05:55] And and meanwhile a lot of attorneys are bouncing all over the map trying to [00:06:00] get interviews and feeling like no one wants them and getting depressed and worrying about not having gotten a job as a summer associate or being unemployed. And many of them give up and they stop trying because it's easier to it's easier to give up than it is to continually face rejection.
[00:06:15] And and that's a shame because anybody can get a job. IOC can get anyone a job. It doesn't matter who the person is. Bye push harder. I can give them a job as an attorney somewhere and and probably better than, much better than they could get on their own. And that's not to brag.
[00:06:30] It's just because I, it's not that I have, again, I don't have any special persuasive skills. I don't have any I just understand the rules of the game that I'm going to talk to you about. And honestly, my persuasive skills are not, I've never, I don't try to talk people into taking offers. I don't I don't it's there's just rules and you get people offers and jobs based on following them.
[00:06:50] So I want to take an example of. There's just rules for everything. There's rules for getting married, some women for example, will get [00:07:00] multiple marriage proposals from very desirable men and others. We'll never get one. The women who get a lot of proposals are often the ones that even are interested in getting proposals.
[00:07:08] And and the same thing goes for the attorneys that get a lot of offers that they often aren't even that interested in getting all these offers and that is an issue. And then. And then let me just see here. And and so you had asked yourself, what are these women and what are these attorneys doing differently and what are what is it that they're able to do that other people are not?
[00:07:26] And and she, and that's something that you need to think about. So a year ago I was talking to to this camera here, but so your guys, sorry, I was talking to a hiring partner of a large firm. And, he said to me, what is the most in demand practice area? What do you have that no one else is going to be able to find me.
[00:07:45] And the answer was very easy. I told it was, I told them real estate. I said that real estate is very strong and no one can get real estate attorneys. And I said, I have a very good real estate attorney a few buildings over from you. And I said, if you want, I'm sure he would be [00:08:00] interested in speaking with you.
[00:08:00]The attorney brightened up and asked me to send the person right over. And he said were right when you went right away, we're dying over here. And after speaking with a real estate attorney and telling them a little bit about the firm, I sent him more for an interview. He met with a few people on the hiring cob pairing partner called me as he was leaving the building and said, everyone loved him.
[00:08:19] We want to bring them back for half day of interviews and have lunch with them and some associates. So meanwhile, I thought this was all strange because The law firm, branch office of a international law firm located about 750 miles away from from the firms, other offices.
[00:08:36]There didn't seem to be a single real estate attorney at the branch office and the office didn't even seem to do real estate work. So I was really unclear about how the law firm expected to keep this attorney busy. And and so I asked the, the associate, I said, I would encourage you to ask them how they expect to keep you busy without any real estate attorneys in their office.
[00:08:56]And I said, the firm was much better than the firm the attorney was at, [00:09:00] but at the same time it didn't seem like it was a really good, could be a good place for them to work. So I just wanted the person to be careful. And the attorney didn't ask where the real estate work and the firm was coming from, but he went back and he had a strange set of second interviews.
[00:09:14] He met some IP litigators some patent attorneys, they were doing a lot of IP in the office and an attorney who specialized in education law, not a single real estate attorney. And then at the end of this, he told me I talked to him that evening after his interview, as you saw, I really liked the culture and could see myself fitting it in there.
[00:09:30] And. And then the day after his second round of interviews, the hiring partner left me a message that the firm was extremely impressed with him and just needed a clearance from the national office to hire him. And I still didn't understand, what was going on because the firm literally did not have any real estate work as far as I knew a week went by and then another week, and I didn't hear anything.
[00:09:50] And then the hiring partner I would call and someone would say just a moment and then he would never pick up. And then it would go to his voicemail. And then I started sending emails and then about three weeks [00:10:00] after all these interviews, I received a short email from the, from him.
[00:10:03]And it said something along the lines of, I think my enthusiasm may have gotten the best of me and my partners have been joking me and giving me a very hard time. We don't have any real estate work in this office. So we understand how hot real estate is, but it doesn't make sense for us to hire this attorney where we don't have anything for him to do.
[00:10:18] And they said, if you find a partner with sufficient business that keep them busy, that could work. Can you find a, some part in partner first? So you may be asking you. What, why would affirm, bring someone bring an associate in that doesn't have any real estate work, put them through a whole round of interviews, give them good reviews and then try to hire them.
[00:10:38]This, and this is a branch office and admittedly, maybe the person that was doing the hiring had a budget and didn't know what they were doing, but this is sounds to me and it is crazy. But this sort of thing I've seen happen before and this is part of, this formula that I'm going to talk to you about why this happened and and how it happened.
[00:10:57] And if you understand why this happened it [00:11:00] can help you in your professional life and your personal life. It all has to do with how desirable something looks, how rare it looks on. And I'm going to share that with you in just a moment, but when people believe something is very strong and other people are interested in it then they're much more likely to want it's like that with anything.
[00:11:16] But I'm going to tell you more about that. Cause that's that's, there's a lot to it. It's not, but I want to tell you real quickly about another experience I had with a candidate. And I was unable to help this candidate. But this illustrates a larger point in making this presentation.
[00:11:29]This particular candidate was a junior partner at a major law firm and was working with me and another recruiter and the other recruiter. Was with the junior partner engaging the scam related to the junior partners book of business and scam has been going on forever. Since I I saw this scam happening when I was practicing law with partners that were hiring firms out of San, but this is th this is how the scam works.
[00:11:54] And most large law firms fall victim of this scam. Actually I say once every five to 10 years, but it's [00:12:00] probably even less than that, maybe once every couple of years and there are law firms all over the country are taken by this camp. And so what happens when a law firm makes the junior non-equity partner this is how all law firms work.
[00:12:10]They will typically many times the majority of the time the non-equity partner will not have very much business if any. And and so there is, this is with large law firms, especially. So they're making the, they're giving the person, the partner title in the hopes that they can use that and go out and start generating business and then be self-sufficient.
[00:12:29] And then the law firm will make even more money from them. And then they were making this an associate with a business, the person that brings in. So that's the hope and they want the person to become a part. So that they can, they call them a partner so they can give them something to look forward to and advance people.
[00:12:43] And then so they can use that title to attract clients and so forth. But most attorneys that become non-equity partners never get the business. They need to become equity partners. It just doesn't happen. And and so if the law firm has sufficient business to keep them busy they may keep them indefinitely.
[00:12:59]There are [00:13:00] firms that have lots of non-equity partners that have a lot of work even some, major firms. Kirkland's one of them where you can work there and definitely without business there's other firms like that too. But most of the time, it most major firms, what happens is if you don't get enough business within a couple of years then the law firm is going to stop sharing work with you.
[00:13:19]They're going to, and they're basically going to be pushing you out. And and that's pretty much what happens to junior partners all over the country at firms, they make partner, but then they don't have, they get a couple of years give business. They don't, they're unable to make that transition.
[00:13:36] And then the law firm starts asking them to kinda, go your own way. And so they either go in-house or they go to smaller firms and they do those sorts of things, but that's how it typically works. And like many junior partners in this guy shoes. He soon learned that, he only had these options.
[00:13:51] He could go in house cause he didn't have any business. He could get business or he could find a law firm that didn't require him to have business. And this is what happens to [00:14:00] attorneys all over the country. It's happening probably if you're in a large law firm, it's probably happening to several attorneys right now that you work with and know but this junior partner like many others and many of them do this went for a fourth option which is unethical and not really an option at all, but it's done all the time.
[00:14:16] As a matter of fact, I would estimate and it's mainly done. It's done by males and females alike, but what they do is they basically say they have a book of business and they shop that around a new firms and they say that they're interested in large firms and they start throwing around, the names of major firms and and they think that they're going to be able to stay employed in a major firm and and, and as a partner and and so basically, my response to them is always, you're not going to be able to get into a major firm unless you have several million dollars in business.
[00:14:47]And and then they always say something like I'm probably gonna be able to bring some of the firms, clients, meaning not their clients, but someone else's clients. If I do this, it's going to be several million dollars. Then I ask her Check and then, and then they, they don't [00:15:00] always say so directly, but usually I learned that, something along the lines, it's gonna be extremely difficult.
[00:15:04]But I can tell them I'm bringing bring these clients and see what happens. So I don't participate in this, but it I certainly get taken in by it and have been taken in by it before most recruiters have actually I, every recruiter, hat and and it's the oldest trick in the book it's been going on for decades.
[00:15:20] And so what happens is the law firm that the attorney will typically get hired because they're despite representing their book of business, falsely that the firm won't check it when they get to the new firm and they get it, they'll negotiate the highest salary and money that they possibly can.
[00:15:37]When they get to the new firm, the the attorney will explain that, the clients aren't moving, but they're getting to have standing meetings and so forth and we'll get them to move so they can build up a book of business again. And then after about 18 months or so with no business the firm will push the attorney out in the cycle.
[00:15:53] We'll start again. And a lot of times it's it's interesting, but what happens is. The attorney has a very hard time living with [00:16:00] themself and they get to the new firm. They don't bring in the business. They often start abusing substances and stuff cause they're freaked out.
[00:16:06] And they stopped showing up that, they, it just weird stuff happens and it it's not good. And and it, but this is what happens. People are trying to save their career and it's going on in every city it's going on in most firms to some extent and not most firms, but a lot of firms.
[00:16:21]And instead of my junior partner, Kansas of him getting interviews of firms requiring 3 million books of business, I was able to get them interviews with smaller firms that didn't require business and had a need for his world-class training and skills. But he wasn't interested and he told me that his other recruiter had been able to get them interviews with firms like Skadden, Sidley and others, and from instinct and along here serve watching this sort of.
[00:16:41]I knew what was going on. He had another recruiter represent an incredible amount of business and that firms all over Los Angeles were competing for him. And and and the and the, the recruiter was able to convince people of that. And all, ultimately this candidate got a position at a major American law firm in LA.
[00:17:00] [00:16:59] And and to my astonishment, I started seeing, front page stories and like legal period publications around LA and so forth, how we've been hired by this major firm representing major clients. I was sitting at my desk and I got a email from the lead story was on law.com I think.
[00:17:16] And I, and it came across my desk. I couldn't believe it. And and there were quotes from the head of the firm bragging about how pleased they were that he was hired. And I just, I couldn't, I, it was one of the strangest things. I don't know, strange as the right word, but. Kind of thing I see all the time and I'm pretty confident this attorney had increased his take-home pay probably to over, from what I'm assuming was three to 400,000 to probably over 850,000.
[00:17:42] Now that I think about it for all of the representations he made and I knew it wouldn't last for long. I spoke with a recruiting coordinator at another major firm where the train did not get an offer. And I asked if she saw the new store and if a firm was interviewing him too, which I already knew, but then it let her know.
[00:17:57] And because he told me and [00:18:00] she said something like him and the other recruiter, I had him thinking, he walked on water. They flew in business class to our New York office to dinner with his wife. And it was amazing. They really wanted to believe he had all the business and all these firms were interested in him and so forth.
[00:18:14] And they, the firm wanted to believe it. And then she explained that they got very close to making them an offer. And and she assists, insisted that they contact some of those clients to see if he really was. He originated attorney. That seems like a very simple request. And when this happened, they turn your turn hostile.
[00:18:29]Told them he was looking at other options and everything began to unravel. And and while this is unusual, it did make. The law firm gunshot enough that they cited the odds are, he probably didn't have the business. And and the legal recruiter that was involved with burning a bridge, but the formula was simple.
[00:18:43] I've got this guy between, three and $5 million from business. Everyone wants to hire him. Are you interested? He won't last long. And the recruiter made him seem so desirable. That other firms were literally falling all over themselves to her. So that's how that works.
[00:18:57] That's how someone gets hired in a major [00:19:00] firm without a lot of business. But so here's what I do. And and how you can do this ethically. Like I can find when I work with a candidate, we always have a section of our cover letters. And if you're a one of our candidates, I think our our critters would not be happy to show them to you.
[00:19:17]It's always called what we like about this person. And and and then. Find truthful aspects of their background that make them seem as desirable as possible and make firms want to interview and hire them as quickly as possible. So we make them seem very desirable and and the law firm, the candidate, the attorneys seems so desirable that firms want to hire them even many times when they don't have the kind of work the attorney does is illustrated by what happened with with a real estate attorney.
[00:19:42] And because if you make the person seem desirable and everybody wants them, then law firms feel like they're missing out on something if they don't get them. So here's another quick example. Several years ago I was working with an insurance coverage attorney in Los Angeles and she was very senior.
[00:19:57] I think she had about 10 years of experience and that's not very [00:20:00] senior, but it's a senior for an associate and there weren't really any jobs. But I was able to arrange a few informational interviews for her with insurance coverage partners around the country just informational, meaning like they, she wanted to talk to them about their practice and, they were, the conversations for general limited is something where the law firm would say, we don't have anything for you right now, but if we do we'll contact you.
[00:20:20] And one afternoon I was sitting in my office and I got a call. Recruiting director above the, a pretty big law firm in LA and she was calling and just flat on the phone and she called to say, we're passing on the person, Mitch. This just means for, we're not going to hire them.
[00:20:35] And and I don't know I was in the, a certain type of mood that day. And I said, that's insane. That's crazy. You can't pass on her. You have a great insurance coverage practice. And this attorney speaking with law firms all over the country the very, very few good ones like her, and like anywhere near have the experience with the same insurance you can't afford to not interview her.
[00:20:55] And and you may never see someone like this again. You really need to think about this reconsider. I [00:21:00] really want to help you guys because you hired some from me recently. Let's get you in there for a screening interview with the head of your insurance coverage practice, because she is going to get interviews very quickly.
[00:21:08]And you need to move quickly. And then, so the person perked up them as oh, I didn't realize she had all this interest, blah, blah, blah. And and very quickly, 30 minutes later the firm called up, they wanted to bring her in right away. They called and asked me what other firms she was considering.
[00:21:21]I said, she's speaking with everyone. But I said, if you're moving first and give her an offer first, I bet, I might be able to get her to stop her job, search and accept, but I'm not making any guarantees. And I created a buzz with this firm and it was about. And this firm actually did have work, so I was helping her, but and and suddenly she was trending and within a day or so, she got an offer the law firm aggressively recruited her.
[00:21:44] They called her over the weekend. While she was considering this year, she had questions and tell him, tell her how much she wanted to join. She didn't have anything else. The law firm didn't think this, they thought that they were strengthening their deck of people that they were giving.
[00:21:58]They were hiring a really good person [00:22:00] to use that they needed. They and she ended up going to the firm and doing very well. And and, decades later still practicing with the people from the firm, she actually ended up leaving the firm several years later, but she left with a group and now she's a partner.
[00:22:14]And she wasn't marketable when I was working with her. But she came marketable because a firm thought she was marketable in demand. Something really to think about. People, law firms and groups we'll do the strangest thing when they think that someone is in demand and popular.
[00:22:29] And and what is the secret by the way, to, things like popularity when people. Become interested in people are, the Kardashians or, different types of people that you may be interested or on Tik TOK or Instagram. Are they really that interesting or are they interesting because they've got a million followers or millions of followers.
[00:22:46]And that's really how people think they think people get interested in other people because they believe that kind of person or place or thing is in demand. People will wear things. They might not even like, because they think they're fashionable. So [00:23:00] think about all the ridiculous things that you might've worn in the past and that you wo
