Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part II: The Hunt
Eventually, the attorneys in almost every solo practice or small law firm will come to the realization that they require the help of a legal assistant. Hiring someone to come into your law firm, communicate with your clients and have access to your firm’s most delicate information should not be taken lightly. There are several key steps attorneys should take before they start the search for a legal assistant. To learn more about them read the first article in this three part series called “Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part I: Have a Plan”.
Once you’ve decided to hire a legal assistant for your solo practice or small law firm, and after you have planned out what tasks you will need them to take over for you and the salary and benefits you can offer, it’s time to begin the hunt. Finding just the right legal assistant is important. If your firm hires someone who just isn’t a good fit, you may have difficulty letting them go from the firm. Then once you do let them go, you’re back to where you started in the first place.
Take the time to perform a proper search, so that you can get the right legal assistant the first time.
Know Where to Look
One of the best ways to find a legal assistant is the old fashioned way, advertise the position. Put an ad in the paper and on Internet job boards like http://www.monster.com. You can also go to sites like Monster and view the resumes of legal assistants who are looking for work. Another great way to look for an assistant is to network. Let friends, family, and even clients know that you’re growing and that you’re in the market for an assistant.
There are staffing agencies that specialize in providing firms with legal assistants. They place a temporary legal assistant with you and the two of you work together for anywhere from 30 – 90 days, during which time you pay the agency a high hourly rate and then they pay the assistant after taking out a percentage. If all is well and you want to hire the assistant, then the staffing company will charge you an additional finder’s fee.
While it may sound tempting to use an agency, they charge a lot of money and almost anyone can register with them because their screening process is not very difficult to get through. The upside of using an agency is that you get a try before you buy. If the assistant isn’t a good fit, you can just call the agency and they will send you a new stack of potential candidates.
If you have the funds, then go ahead and use an agency, but you should still conduct phone and face to face interviews with all potential candidates.
Be specific in your advertisement
Be as clear as you can with potential candidates about what you think their duties will be. If you need someone who will be willing to work the occasional nights and weekends, be upfront about that as well. The more detailed you are, the more likely it is that you will find someone who will be a good fit for you and your firm.
List a salary range. There is definitely a lot of controversy about whether or not salary ranges should be listed in a job advertisement. However, at the end of the day, most people work because they have bills to pay. If the salary that you’re offering is $10,000 less a year than what a potential applicant needs in order to support themselves, then interviewing them is a waste of time for both of you.
Review resumes carefully. If a resume is chock full of misspellings, then you know that the applicant is not detail oriented when it really counts. If you want a legal assistant who will be able to write for you or do research and present it to you in a well organized document, then make sure that their resume reads well. It should have a flow, use logical language, and common yet professional phrases.
Look for gaps in employment and bouncing around from one job to another. However, keep in mind that the era of employees staying with the same company for life has passed. If your applicant changes jobs every 2-3 years, they may only stay with you that long as well. Many people see each job as a stepping stone to the next one.
The Interviews
Plan to do a phone interview. A phone interview is a great way to weed out applicants who just don’t fit with your firm. The phone interview doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes. If they sound unprofessional, easily confused, or hard to understand, you already know that it isn’t worth meeting them. Phone interviews may feel like an unnecessary step, but in reality they can cut down on the number of applicants that you actually end up having to meet with face to face.
For the face to face interview, come prepared with a series of questions. A strong applicant should also have questions for you.
Once you have narrowed it down to a few candidates, check their references. References can often provide useful information about the strengths of the candidate.
The Offer
Be prepared to negotiate the salary. Ideally they won’t try to get a higher salary than what you’re comfortable with because you listed a range in your advertisement. If for some reason you really want this candidate, but they want more than what you’re comfortable paying, be willing to negotiate in other areas.
You can offer an extra week or two of vacation. If you work in a building that has inadequate parking, you can offer to pay for them to park in a spot that is close to the building. You could also offer to increase their salary once they have finished the probation period. You could even offer them a flexible working schedule if it would not cause a problem for the firm.
Looking for the perfect legal assistant can be challenging. Use the steps provided above to make sure that you don’t miss a beat in your search. To learn how to handle those first few weeks, read the last article in this series entitled “Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part III: Working Together.”
