Legal Authority came about because of attorneys’ need for a service that would actually get them the specific types of jobs they want. Being an attorney is among the very most prestigious professions in the United States. The people who choose careers as attorneys are highly intelligent, motivated and capable of great things. The public relies upon attorneys to perform an extremely important service and the work of attorneys has a profound impact on society.
In fact, attorneys are held in such high regard by society that most outsiders simply assume they will always be in the type of job they want. The fact is that every member of the legal profession—from law students, to associates and partners at small AmLaw 100 law firms, to General Counsels of Fortune 100 companies, to public interest and government attorneys–may need access to all of the potential positions matching their interests is something that is virtually ignored by law schools, headhunters and job posting boards.
The founder of Legal Authority is a former law student, practicing attorney, legal recruiter and law professor. It was his understanding gained from these three experiences and the inefficiencies he saw in terms of how most attorneys have traditionally gone about getting legal jobs that led to the founding of Legal Authority.
As a law student he could not understand why he had to apply to only the firms his career services office told him about. This made absolutely no sense to him. They ran the whole show. He went to a Top 10 law school and saw lots of attorneys who did not have jobs by the time they graduated and others only got offers from firms in areas of the country they did not really want to work, or with firms they knew they would be unhappy working for, or with firms where they would practice in an area of law they flatly did not want to practice in. Other students tried applying to all the firms in the NALP Guide or a few of the better looking ones in Martindale—all to no avail in finding the type of job they wanted.
With so many attorneys practicing throughout the United States, this did not make any sense to him either. He was confident there was the perfect job in the city of the choosing of the attorney. This was something he was sure of. Several years later, he learned that many of the attorneys who had made the wrong choices while in law school were no longer practicing law. This did not surprise him. Some of the law students who did not have jobs when they graduated simply gave up hope of ever being an attorney after graduating from law school. The former law student believed this was an enormous tragedy and did not make a tremendous amount of sense.
In his role as the head of a legal recruiting firm, he saw that too many good attorneys were not getting jobs. During the slowdown in the market for corporate associates virtually no corporate associate with less than 5 years of experience was employable in a major law firm in the United States—regardless of their qualifications. Oftentimes he would invite these stellar attorneys into his offices and assist them in sending unsolicited applications to 300-400 firms in his recruiting firms database (not under the legal recruiting firm’s letterhead).
A funny thing happened. All of these attorneys got jobs. Lot of jobs. Jobs a recruiter could not have gotten them.
Everyday this recruiter would personally review every resume of an attorney who approached his placement firm. Then, after reviewing each resume, he would respond personally to each resume. With several recruiters working for him, he would refer out the best resumes to his recruiters. Then, he would reject several people a day and send them a short note thanking them for contacting his firm. This was something that he believed was very unfortunate. Many of the attorneys would respond to his rejection emails that they were going to simply give up. He knew they were giving up.
With so much effort put into these people becoming attorneys he felt disgruntled. On the weekends he would often invite in the candidates who were most persistent in seeking out the recruiting firms services—regardless of their qualifications. He would help them apply to a couple hundred of law firms on their own (without using a recruiting firm—just the firm’s contacts). Regardless of these attorneys qualifications, the vast, vast majority got positions this way.
One hot Saturday July afternoon, the recruiter received a telephone call from one of his former law students who was getting ready to take the bar exam at the end of July. This law student had been one of his students at the Fourth Tier law school he taught at. This student had graduated second in his class and yet had never received an interview with a firm composed of more than one attorneys in his three years of looking for a job. As a law student, the individual had tried everything his career services office offered, applied to every firm in the NALP Guide and every firm he could find that looked good in Martindale. All to no avail.
Since this individual had been one of the recruiter’s students, he knew that he had to do something to help him because he knew this individual would one day be an outstanding attorney. He spent three full days helping the student prepare and revise letters to send to several hundred firms and this student received several offers. In fact, this student wound up practicing for one of the top firms in the city of his choosing. Incidentally, it was a firm that had not listed itself in any of the so called “traditional sources”.
As an attorney, this individual had known scores of other practicing attorneys who had been searching for the perfect in house or law firm position for years. All to no avail. Many of these individuals had stellar qualifications. One day one of the attorney’s best friends was laid off. In fact, he had been laid off for months by the time he called his friend who was a recruiter. The attorney had just recently purchased a house and had a second child on the way. In addition, he was near the limit on his credit cards. The recruiter felt that he really had to do something and so he took action.
This attorney was interested in both in-house and law firm positions. The attorney had been working with recruiters for months and searching job boards and replying to classified listings. The attorney also had been laid off from a top firm and had outstanding qualifications.
The recruiter took drastic action to help his friend who was interested in a very small section of the United States. He assisted him in applying to every potential in-house and law firm position using a database that he developed with his friend and a staff of 5 temporary workers he hired for this very purpose. The recruiter used his own personal funds. He purchased every source of information he could find and for over a month he worked with his friend and five other people to assist him in gathering contact information for this area of the United States. The information was not complete; however, when the letters were sent out he knew his friend would find a position. In fact, by the time he accepted an offer he had already received over 15 interviews and had six job offers.
The recruiter realized that attorneys all over the United States could benefit from this type of service. The five individuals were asked to stay on and more people were added. At a cost of over $1,000,000 a database was built. First for law firm positions, then in house positions, then for public interest positions, then for government positions. We worked for over six months building a database before launching Legal Authority. Since that time, the staff has grown to over 40 people gathering contacts and assisting individuals and Legal Authority now assists hundreds of attorneys each month.
There are a lot of sources out there which will distract you from your central goal of getting the job you want. Headhunters, job boards and classified ads cannot possibly compete with Legal Authority. Legal Authority actually has all the potential jobs and allows you to (1) apply for positions where there are not hundreds of people competing for the same position, and (2) apply for positions without attaching a $20,000+ fee an employer will have to pay if they hire you. Legal Authority puts you in control of your job search so you can actually get the job you want.
Put a Price on Hiring You (If You Want)
Legal recruiting firms charge hiring organizations a fee which is generally 25-30% of an attorney’s annual salary if they hire an attorney. Who would you hire if you were a hiring organization???
Candidate A: Cost if hired through a recruiter: $25,000+
Candidate B: Approaches firm because has identified this firm as a place they would like to work. Cost to firm $0.00
Not all hiring organizations are willing to pay these fees and hiring organizations—who are businesses—obviously prefer candidates not coming through recruiting firms.
The Vast Majority of Companies Do Not Use Legal Recruiters
The vast majority of companies do not use legal recruiters. Legal recruiters are used when a company is having an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. However, it is very rare that a corporation has an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. A great number of attorneys dream of going in-house and find these positions by using a service like Legal Authority. The other positions are generally filled by companies drawing in attorneys from their own law firms. Call a legal recruiting firm in any major city and ask them how many in-house opportunities they have for you. Chances are they will be able to list them off on one hand. Does this make much sense to you? There are thousands of companies in most major cities that employ attorneys of different backgrounds.
In addition, the only law firms which are likely to use recruiters to fill positions are those that cannot fill these positions on their own. The best and most prestigious law firms are frequently approached by attorneys on their own and do not need to do a lot of proactive recruiting. In addition, smaller to mid sized law firms often cannot afford the fees legal recruiters charge. Why vastly limit your universe of opportunities when you can use Legal Authority?
Hope (And Pray) Your Legal Recruiter Knows What Is Out There
The amount of work required to learn of all the available positions in a market is profound. Most legal recruiting firms are made up of a few individuals with relationships with a limited number of employers. In addition, it is a little known fact that law firms and corporations often will not do business with recruiters (or ever see their candidates) who are recruiting from their firms or corporations (and firms and corporations do find out). Accordingly, you may be limiting yourself to a very limited number of potential employers.
Other legal recruiters may send your materials to firms they have never even spoken with and then demand set fees. Legal Authority can connect you with every employer that matches what you are seeking to do without a middleman or a fee hanging over an employer’s head.
There are literally hundreds of job boards for attorneys and job students. No attorney could possibly find all of the job boards. Even when opportunities are located on job boards, you are simply putting yourself into competition with the thousands of other attorneys that have an email account. In addition, many hiring organizations do not advertise open positions. Accordingly, by using job boards you may be missing a substantial number of positions on an ongoing basis.
In addition, many job boards charge employers $500 or more to post a single classified listing on their site. Many employers do not want to pay these fees either (and that even assumes they are being proactive enough to search out job boards). Another lesser known fact is that many job boards pride themselves on having the most positions. This may sound like a good thing; however, to get all those jobs the job boards may run ads on their sites for 60 days or more (long after the position has even been filled).
Attorneys in the know use Legal Authority because it works. We have assisted attorneys from virtually every top law school and AmLaw 100 law firm in the United States get their next position. We have also assisted numerous General Counsels of Fortune 500 corporations. Our service is quick, cost effective and works. If there is a suitable attorney position that matches your interests available, the odds are almost certain we can put you in touch with the employer with the position. Many attorneys we have assisted have tried other methods in their job search for months or even years before contacting Legal Authority and successfully landing the position they have been seeking.
It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contract with a particular legal employer. Using Legal Authority, you can apply to any type of legal employer that matches what you are seeking to do. Those who use Legal Authority have the satisfaction of knowing that they have reached every single employer that matches what they are seeking to do. Legal Authority is, hands down, the most effective way to get a legal position. In addition, our Attorney Employment Advocates and Attorney Writers will assist you making the best possible impact with your resume and cover letter.
“It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contact with a particular legal employer.”
Compared to job boards, legal recruiters, classified ads, networking, outplacement firms or career services offices, no other means of finding your next legal job even comes close to Legal Authority. At Legal Authority, we assist attorneys and law students apply directly to law firms, corporations, public interest organizations, state and federal clerkships—you name it.
Our database contains more legal hiring contacts than any other source on Earth and we have a staff of over 40 attorneys and researchers working 24 hours a day to drive the careers of our attorney candidates forward. Our service is focused, discrete, confidential and enormously effective when you consider your next legal job is already in our database.
Using Legal Authority, hundreds of attorneys each month ensure they (1) are considered for every possible type of job opportunity they are interested in, (2) receive the highest possible compensation, and (3) work in a place they will enjoy working. Legal Authority is the best and most effective way to get a legal job. By assisting you in compiling a list of employers where you are almost certain to be working in your next job,
Legal Authority came about because of attorneys’ need for a service that would actually get them the specific types of jobs they want. Being an attorney is among the very most prestigious professions in the United States. The people who choose careers as attorneys are highly intelligent, motivated and capable of great things. The public relies upon attorneys to perform an extremely important service and the work of attorneys has a profound impact on society.
In fact, attorneys are held in such high regard by society that most outsiders simply assume they will always be in the type of job they want. The fact is that every member of the legal profession—from law students, to associates and partners at small AmLaw 100 law firms, to General Counsels of Fortune 100 companies, to public interest and government attorneys–may need access to all of the potential positions matching their interests is something that is virtually ignored by law schools, headhunters and job posting boards.
The founder of Legal Authority is a former law student, practicing attorney, legal recruiter and law professor. It was his understanding gained from these three experiences and the inefficiencies he saw in terms of how most attorneys have traditionally gone about getting legal jobs that led to the founding of Legal Authority.
As a law student he could not understand why he had to apply to only the firms his career services office told him about. This made absolutely no sense to him. They ran the whole show. He went to a Top 10 law school and saw lots of attorneys who did not have jobs by the time they graduated and others only got offers from firms in areas of the country they did not really want to work, or with firms they knew they would be unhappy working for, or with firms where they would practice in an area of law they flatly did not want to practice in. Other students tried applying to all the firms in the NALP Guide or a few of the better looking ones in Martindale—all to no avail in finding the type of job they wanted.
With so many attorneys practicing throughout the United States, this did not make any sense to him either. He was confident there was the perfect job in the city of the choosing of the attorney. This was something he was sure of. Several years later, he learned that many of the attorneys who had made the wrong choices while in law school were no longer practicing law. This did not surprise him. Some of the law students who did not have jobs when they graduated simply gave up hope of ever being an attorney after graduating from law school. The former law student believed this was an enormous tragedy and did not make a tremendous amount of sense.
In his role as the head of a legal recruiting firm, he saw that too many good attorneys were not getting jobs. During the slowdown in the market for corporate associates virtually no corporate associate with less than 5 years of experience was employable in a major law firm in the United States—regardless of their qualifications. Oftentimes he would invite these stellar attorneys into his offices and assist them in sending unsolicited applications to 300-400 firms in his recruiting firms database (not under the legal recruiting firm’s letterhead).
A funny thing happened. All of these attorneys got jobs. Lot of jobs. Jobs a recruiter could not have gotten them.
Everyday this recruiter would personally review every resume of an attorney who approached his placement firm. Then, after reviewing each resume, he would respond personally to each resume. With several recruiters working for him, he would refer out the best resumes to his recruiters. Then, he would reject several people a day and send them a short note thanking them for contacting his firm. This was something that he believed was very unfortunate. Many of the attorneys would respond to his rejection emails that they were going to simply give up. He knew they were giving up.
With so much effort put into these people becoming attorneys he felt disgruntled. On the weekends he would often invite in the candidates who were most persistent in seeking out the recruiting firms services—regardless of their qualifications. He would help them apply to a couple hundred of law firms on their own (without using a recruiting firm—just the firm’s contacts). Regardless of these attorneys qualifications, the vast, vast majority got positions this way.
One hot Saturday July afternoon, the recruiter received a telephone call from one of his former law students who was getting ready to take the bar exam at the end of July. This law student had been one of his students at the Fourth Tier law school he taught at. This student had graduated second in his class and yet had never received an interview with a firm composed of more than one attorneys in his three years of looking for a job. As a law student, the individual had tried everything his career services office offered, applied to every firm in the NALP Guide and every firm he could find that looked good in Martindale. All to no avail.
Since this individual had been one of the recruiter’s students, he knew that he had to do something to help him because he knew this individual would one day be an outstanding attorney. He spent three full days helping the student prepare and revise letters to send to several hundred firms and this student received several offers. In fact, this student wound up practicing for one of the top firms in the city of his choosing. Incidentally, it was a firm that had not listed itself in any of the so called “traditional sources”.
As an attorney, this individual had known scores of other practicing attorneys who had been searching for the perfect in house or law firm position for years. All to no avail. Many of these individuals had stellar qualifications. One day one of the attorney’s best friends was laid off. In fact, he had been laid off for months by the time he called his friend who was a recruiter. The attorney had just recently purchased a house and had a second child on the way. In addition, he was near the limit on his credit cards. The recruiter felt that he really had to do something and so he took action.
This attorney was interested in both in-house and law firm positions. The attorney had been working with recruiters for months and searching job boards and replying to classified listings. The attorney also had been laid off from a top firm and had outstanding qualifications.
The recruiter took drastic action to help his friend who was interested in a very small section of the United States. He assisted him in applying to every potential in-house and law firm position using a database that he developed with his friend and a staff of 5 temporary workers he hired for this very purpose. The recruiter used his own personal funds. He purchased every source of information he could find and for over a month he worked with his friend and five other people to assist him in gathering contact information for this area of the United States. The information was not complete; however, when the letters were sent out he knew his friend would find a position. In fact, by the time he accepted an offer he had already received over 15 interviews and had six job offers.
The recruiter realized that attorneys all over the United States could benefit from this type of service. The five individuals were asked to stay on and more people were added. At a cost of over $1,000,000 a database was built. First for law firm positions, then in house positions, then for public interest positions, then for government positions. We worked for over six months building a database before launching Legal Authority. Since that time, the staff has grown to over 40 people gathering contacts and assisting individuals and Legal Authority now assists hundreds of attorneys each month.
There are a lot of sources out there which will distract you from your central goal of getting the job you want. Headhunters, job boards and classified ads cannot possibly compete with Legal Authority. Legal Authority actually has all the potential jobs and allows you to (1) apply for positions where there are not hundreds of people competing for the same position, and (2) apply for positions without attaching a $20,000+ fee an employer will have to pay if they hire you. Legal Authority puts you in control of your job search so you can actually get the job you want.
Put a Price on Hiring You (If You Want)
Legal recruiting firms charge hiring organizations a fee which is generally 25-30% of an attorney’s annual salary if they hire an attorney. Who would you hire if you were a hiring organization???
Candidate A: Cost if hired through a recruiter: $25,000+
Candidate B: Approaches firm because has identified this firm as a place they would like to work. Cost to firm $0.00
Not all hiring organizations are willing to pay these fees and hiring organizations—who are businesses—obviously prefer candidates not coming through recruiting firms.
The Vast Majority of Companies Do Not Use Legal Recruiters
The vast majority of companies do not use legal recruiters. Legal recruiters are used when a company is having an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. However, it is very rare that a corporation has an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. A great number of attorneys dream of going in-house and find these positions by using a service like Legal Authority. The other positions are generally filled by companies drawing in attorneys from their own law firms. Call a legal recruiting firm in any major city and ask them how many in-house opportunities they have for you. Chances are they will be able to list them off on one hand. Does this make much sense to you? There are thousands of companies in most major cities that employ attorneys of different backgrounds.
In addition, the only law firms which are likely to use recruiters to fill positions are those that cannot fill these positions on their own. The best and most prestigious law firms are frequently approached by attorneys on their own and do not need to do a lot of proactive recruiting. In addition, smaller to mid sized law firms often cannot afford the fees legal recruiters charge. Why vastly limit your universe of opportunities when you can use Legal Authority?
Hope (And Pray) Your Legal Recruiter Knows What Is Out There
The amount of work required to learn of all the available positions in a market is profound. Most legal recruiting firms are made up of a few individuals with relationships with a limited number of employers. In addition, it is a little known fact that law firms and corporations often will not do business with recruiters (or ever see their candidates) who are recruiting from their firms or corporations (and firms and corporations do find out). Accordingly, you may be limiting yourself to a very limited number of potential employers.
Other legal recruiters may send your materials to firms they have never even spoken with and then demand set fees. Legal Authority can connect you with every employer that matches what you are seeking to do without a middleman or a fee hanging over an employer’s head.
There are literally hundreds of job boards for attorneys and job students. No attorney could possibly find all of the job boards. Even when opportunities are located on job boards, you are simply putting yourself into competition with the thousands of other attorneys that have an email account. In addition, many hiring organizations do not advertise open positions. Accordingly, by using job boards you may be missing a substantial number of positions on an ongoing basis.
In addition, many job boards charge employers $500 or more to post a single classified listing on their site. Many employers do not want to pay these fees either (and that even assumes they are being proactive enough to search out job boards). Another lesser known fact is that many job boards pride themselves on having the most positions. This may sound like a good thing; however, to get all those jobs the job boards may run ads on their sites for 60 days or more (long after the position has even been filled).
Attorneys in the know use Legal Authority because it works. We have assisted attorneys from virtually every top law school and AmLaw 100 law firm in the United States get their next position. We have also assisted numerous General Counsels of Fortune 500 corporations. Our service is quick, cost effective and works. If there is a suitable attorney position that matches your interests available, the odds are almost certain we can put you in touch with the employer with the position. Many attorneys we have assisted have tried other methods in their job search for months or even years before contacting Legal Authority and successfully landing the position they have been seeking.
It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contract with a particular legal employer. Using Legal Authority, you can apply to any type of legal employer that matches what you are seeking to do. Those who use Legal Authority have the satisfaction of knowing that they have reached every single employer that matches what they are seeking to do. Legal Authority is, hands down, the most effective way to get a legal position. In addition, our Attorney Employment Advocates and Attorney Writers will assist you making the best possible impact with your resume and cover letter.
“It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contact with a particular legal employer.”
If you use Legal Authority you can rest assured that you are taking the most focused action possible in your job search. On an average week, we put in over 1,200 hours worth of work into our database. The cost of modifying our database runs well into the seven figures on an annual basis. There are literally over 50 sources we are using on an ongoing basis to update and modify our database. In terms of legal hiring contacts, there is no organization on Earth with more contacts. This is what we do and we are the absolute best in the business we are in.
Our Employment Advocates who assist you in compiling your list of employers are all seasoned legal professionals. With only one exception, each of our Employment Advocates are attorneys. In addition, our profession writers have the type of experience to help you create a resume and cover letter that has the best possible impact on employers. Out of the hundreds of attorneys we assist on a monthly basis, there are very few instances in recent memory when an attorney had a complaint that we did not provide the most effective job search for them possible. It is exceedingly rare that an attorney has ever contacted us and told us that our service did not work. In fact, this has occurred in less than 1 in 1000 attorneys we have ever assisted.
Legal Authority allows you to choose the direction and expansiveness of your job search. Once you make the decision to work with Legal Authority, we will do our absolute best to ensure you find the position you are seeking—whether it is in a law firm, corporation, public interest organization, law school or government office. We are proud to make that promise to each of the attorneys we work with. All of our candidates and clients know that we mean business and take our jobs
“Legal Authority is, quite simply, the most effective way for attorneys to get the type of legal job they are seeking.”
True. There are also ways to ensure you get a legal job and ways that may ensure you do not. You can search job boards and hope that the perfect position comes along. You can also try and find a recruiter with the job you want. You could also subscribe to over 50 legal directories and publications and hire 40 people to update this information for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The later is what we do at Legal Authority. Because thousands of attorneys use our service, the cost is generally far cheaper than were you to do the work yourself.
In most instances, the cost of using Legal Authority is less than $2.00 per employer we help you contact and our search can be as expansive or narrow as you choose. In addition, we verify the information we have before providing it to you, rewrite your resume and cover letter, print it addressed to the specific employers you choose and ship this to you. We speak with attorneys on a daily basis who believe they can do all of the work themselves. If your time is worth less than $7.00 an hour (assuming it takes you 15 minutes to find each hiring contact, enter this information into a letter, proof each letter and then print each resume and letter) and a staff of 40 people, access to over 50 legal directories and $1,000,000 to just build a database, then you can do it yourself. A lot of attorneys think they are smarter than us or somehow have this figured out. If you are one of those attorneys, then go we cannot help you.
Legal Authority is made up of attorneys, writers and researchers who bring a high degree of understanding, competence and a proven track record of achievement to your job search. Our team has attorneys supervising and working with the attorneys who use our service at every level of the search process.
“With hundreds of attorneys served each month, Legal Authority may very well get more attorneys jobs than any other single organization in the United States. By eliminating recruiters and job boards from the search criterion, Legal Authority empowers attorneys to take charge of their careers.”
Our mission is simple: To get attorneys jobs and be the very best at what we do. Anywhere. To that extent, we have developed the largest database of legal employers on Earth and a team of Attorney Employment Advocates who connect attorneys with the jobs which match their interest.
In the Year 2002, Legal Authority looks forward to counseling and enthusiastically represent attorneys and making meaningful differences in the quality of their lives and advancing thousands of more careers.
At Legal Authority, we firmly believe we are the most effective
means anywhere for attorneys and law students to locate their perfect legal position. We have assisted thousands of attorneys and Legal Authority can help you too: We maintain a staff of over 40 attorneys, researchers and writers and have the largest database of legal hiring contacts on Earth. Virtually every day of the week attorneys and law students get multiple legal positions using Legal Authority. No job board, placement firm or any other source can make this claim. What we do for attorneys works.
