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Lateral damage: failed hires cost London dear

James You raise a very interesting point, and it's an area I'd love to look at in more detail (and may yet do...) My own view, for what it's worth, is that in a headhunting/search situation, law firms often 'fall in love' with their desired candidate and make additional concessions during the process. The candidate often feels 'wooed' and is content for the law firm to make all the running. The pressure on the hiring department to make the hire is huge, and compromises are often made in the business planning process. In contrast, with opportunistic situations the onus is on the candidate to demonstrate why the law firm should take them on. The business plan tends to be a lot stronger but, arguably, there is often less internal buy-in and that may lead to a trickier recruitment context, with less support forthcoming from incumbent partners. I suspect the failure rate might be just as high, but for different reasons! I would like to see law firms being much tougher with laterals' business plans, but a precursor to that is getting their own plans fit-for-purpose and developing an understanding of how to construct and operate strong business plans throughout; only then can they approach laterals' business plans with any degree of confidence or understanding. When I was a recruiter I acted for a number of candidates who were rejected by law firms because their business plans were simply too good, and spooked the incumbents. A bizarre situation.

1-Mar-2012

12:37 pm