Mark Levine
Mark Levine
Managing Director: In-house

Articles From the Team

Don't rely on your in-house recruiter: instruct a legal recruiter and see 200% success

A recent timeline

February 22nd

An online legal job posting appears for a business looking to expand its legal team. Responses are directed to an internal recruiter who works at the company.

March 6th

Mark Levine: Hi! How is the hunt for your new recruit coming along?

Client (the business's General Counsel and Company Secretary): Hi Mark, our internal recruiters tell me they have a couple of CVs to send to me - so watch this space!

Mark Levine: OK! It’ll be good to know how the direct approach goes. Based on other clients it sounds like it’s a bit hit or miss.

March 18th

Client: Hey Mark, the internal search is… slow, I have passed both your and Craig's details on...??

March 19th

Mark Levine: Hi, we haven't heard from the internal recruiter. To be honest… the best brief (and the one we will need) will come from you! Can you speak today?

Client: Right! I’m breaking rules here… but what time works best for a call?

Mark Levine: I knew you were a rebel!! It’s the only way to get things done!! 3pm?

March 19th - April 18th

  • The in-house team at BCL was fully briefed on the role; we met the client onsite and contacted ‘who we know’
  • This is not a volume market when it comes to sending lawyer CVs to clients right now, but two very credible lawyers were introduced to them by us
  • This doesn’t happen often but BOTH were deemed immensely hireable. As a result, the GC/Co Sec and the business hired both

Is that a 200% success rate??

In summary

Day in, day out, for 16 years, the BCL Legal in-house recruitment team has got to know and understand the roles of the lawyers that entrust their career search to us. Thankfully for us, this can’t be learnt in a short time by an in-house recruiter who’s not a specialist legal recruiter.

If you are a Head of Legal looking to add to your team, I beg you to make your life immeasurably easier when it comes to looking for your next legal recruit - instruct BCL Legal!

On working with BCL Legal, The General Counsel and Company Secretary told us this: “We got the candidates we did because Craig took the time to get to know not only the requirements of the business/the role but also a good understanding of what was important to me in building my team. It felt like I was being interviewed and I think I was but that’s exactly the right approach!”

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