Pay -To-Place Recruiting

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A recent AmericanLawyer.com article asked the question "Can the pay-to-place model work for legal recruiting newcomers?"

Recent legal recruiting newcomers Lateral Link and Legal Recruiting Authority offer $20,000 bonuses to the associates it places.

Both firms operate only on the Web. Instead of cold calls, these firms offer its members access to a database of available positions. These members are junior to mid-level associates from the nation's top law firms . Take a new job, and an associate also pockets a fee of $10K to $20K.

Many traditional recruiters do not like the practice. The National Association of Legal Search Consultants, has a code of ethics that bans such payments. However, the National Association of Law Placement for law firm and law school recruiters has no problem with it. Lateral Link's T.J. Duane calls that ban "uncompetitive" that there's nothing wrong with paying a placement bonus.

Ethical considerations aside, can this pay-to-place system work as a business? Lateral Link says that the basis of traditional recruiting - cold-calling associates - is inefficient and that they have a competitive advantage with the membership.

How does this work in the case of Lateral Link? Associates apply to be accepted as members. These associates typically must be graduates from top law schools with big-firm experience. If accepted, members gain access to Lateral Link's database of jobs where they can identify jobs that interest them. Lateral Link recruiters refer them to the law firms.

Lateral Link offers a $10,000 Guaranteed Signing Bonus for positions with base salary of $160,000 or more. The bonus comes from the commission the law firm pays Lateral Link (typically 25-30 percent of the attorney's salary).

Will it work? The more established Lateral Link says it has 6,000 members and has placed 100 lawyers. It acknowledges that margins are slimmer, but it is counting on web-based "efficiencies" to make hit work.

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