I asked the candidate how the interview went, and the first thing she told me was that one of the two partners in the meeting kept checking his blackberry during the interview.  The candidate felt the firm wasn’t making the search process a priority, so she joined another firm.

Two months later, this same law firm interviewed another partner.  I asked him how the meeting went, and the first thing he told me was that one of the two partners in the meeting kept checking his blackberry during the interview.  A month later, he joined another firm.

I think we see a pattern here.

If hiring successful lateral partners with loyal clients is a priority to your firm, then you need to act like it is.  At this level, the deals are lost from the little things.  You can get them through the scope of your firm’s strategic plan, you can make the introductions to various related practice group leaders, and all of that will move the deal forward.  But what will kill it are the little things. The small courtesies are what lateral partners subconsciously consider as ‘tells’ in ascertaining a firm’s true nature.

One suggestion I have made to firms on this subject is to make lateral partner recruiting a priority on the same level as client development.   If you want to grow your firm, you have two options:  get new clients, or recruit those who already have them.

Your recruiting process is as close to a branding exercise as going through a branding exercise.  Each meeting, each email and each message during the process contributes to how others in the market consider your firm.  So be intentional about it and tactical as well.

From my experience of having hundreds of candidates fall off of my magical recruiting circus bus over the years, here are a few suggestions:

1. Serve the good wine first.

Consider who will best represent your firm and have them start the process of introducing prospective laterals to your firm.  Once a good impression has been made, then bring in the others who might be the next choice in the process.  Get the rainmakers involved early in the process because usually they have mastered the skills of developing authentic and meaningful business relationships.  Not every lawyer has developed that skill yet, and it is indeed a skill more than a talent.

2. Prep those in the meeting.

Discuss two key aspects:  the motivations of the candidate to move, and the unique advantage your firm has in helping achieve these motives.  Prep them to ask questions to the candidate to draw this out.  I have created a significant advantage in the lateral hiring process with my clients when I facilitate a conference call with the key leaders in before a meeting.  That way everyone is on the same page and knows what to discuss, what to stay away from, and what questions to ask.

3. Accept the fact that this takes a lot of time. A LOT of time.

If your entire lateral recruiting process is nothing more than a flurry of time-efficient exchange of emails, then you are losing an edge because you cannot discuss information in a more effective way that can provide key solutions to bringing that lateral over.  When you are emailing, you don’t think of asking a certain question the way you would in a phone call, and that one small piece of information could possibly be the single greatest resource in getting that candidate to consider joining your team.

You need to spend time on this, and recruiting lateral candidates needs to be as great of a priority to your firm as acquiring new clients.  If you are not committed at that level, then your competitors will get all the best talent and you will get the left-overs.

When I was a twenty-four year old naval officer after my sea tour, I served as a Deming management instructor and leadership trainer in Norfolk, Virginia teaching a new initiative called ‘Total Quality Management’ that the Navy renamed to ‘Total Quality Leadership.’  This program was based on the work of  W. Edwards Deming.  Deming was an American management consultant who pioneered the quality movement and stimulated a major economic impact in the Japanese economy by showing the Japanese how to manage their manufacturing output in their recovery from the second world war.  In the 1980’s, his revolutionary ideas came to America, and the rest is history.

This personal career experience shaped the way I viewed the world, and shaped the way I taught recruiting through my other business, a recruiter training company (over 3500 search firms have invested in my recruiting tools).

In looking at how law firms recruit and integrate prospective lateral candidates, I find that there is a need for a clearly defined process which is communicated to those involved internally in the process.  As a result, I am offering a free process flow chart tool to law firms to help them improve their effectiveness in recruiting and placing laterals.  You can download this pdf tool here: Proposed Client Process.  (once you open it in a new browser you can save it as a pdf for your own internal use)

This tool can be a talking point during management meetings among hiring partners, practice group leaders, managing partners, and recruiting departments.  I would recommend using it as a baseline in shaping your internal protocols.  As Deming said, anything that is measured can be improved.  By using ’statistical process control’, which are the tools of measuring process, we can make improvements.  I hope that this flow chart helps your firm in smoothing out the bumps and rough spots in your internal lateral recruiting process.

Kevin Price, the host of “Price of Business” interviews Scott Love on the importance of authentic relationships within the client development and recruiting process.

A big mistake I have noticed during interviews with lateral partners is how the stage is set incorrectly during the very first five minutes of the meeting. The biggest bomb a managing partner or hiring partner can drop which will instantly kill the potency of the meeting is to ask this question: “Why are you looking to leave?” Most of the time the partner who is presented by a third party recruiter, or headhunter, isn’t actively looking. They are just curious.

Ever since I began my headhunting career in 1995, I learned that the best professionals are not necessarily those who are actively looking. Instead, I am retained and engaged to actively seek those who are not looking but who are amazing. It is the authentic relationship that I build with these star attorneys that moves them forward and I do this by focusing on a single goal during my initial conversation with them: I get them to choose to open up their mind.

An open mind should also be the primary objective during this first meeting when you meet with a prospective lateral. You must probe through intelligent question-asking about what is missing from this partner’s career, and what frustrations and problems could be ameliorated should a transition occur. Focus more on asking than selling. Sure, you have to sell, but the key fundamental concept of sales is to discover and uncover the buying motives of your prospect, and sell to that.

For example, if the prospective lateral doesn’t feel that his practice group is a priority for his current firm, this very well may be enough to incite a move. Don’t start off discussing your open comp system or other aspects of your firm unless you know what is important to the candidate.

Think of a waiter in a restaurant. You don’t come in to the restaurant, sit at a table and he brings you a meal. Instead he brings you a menu and asks you what you are hungry for. A few minutes later he delivers a food choice that was in alignment with your gastric ambitions. You eat, and feel that happy because you received exactly what you wanted.

Conduct mock interviews with other partners in your firm. Be prepared prior to the meeting. If it’s an important use of time, then you shouldn’t practice with prospective laterals. With careful thought and appropriate questions, you will set the stage for a positive meeting and increase the odds of a positive result.