Abstract
In-house legal departments will continue to experience pressure to meet or exceed performance standards across the full spectrum of the legal services they provide. This can only be accomplished if legal managers and their HR colleagues can identify and recruit high quality lawyers who will succeed in a metrics-driven environment.
Traditional reliance on academic credentials and “brand name” law firm training is insufficient. Companies will need to develop tools to identify candidates with business literacy, efficient work habits, business-friendly communication skills, well developed risk assessment analytics, and practical judgment. Identifying such candidates requires a combination of new screening techniques and a substantially better use of the traditional interview process. Hiring mistakes are costly, time consuming, and damaging to a legal department’s reputation within the company. Fortunately, several resources are at hand, from psycho-metric testing to effective interview engagements, that greatly enhance the prospects of successful recruiting.Legal departments around the world are busy creating, implementing and refining performance evaluation models to better assess how their legal departments are satisfying client demand and advancing the business objectives of their companies. At the root of this effort is the basic concept of measurement. Companies are utilizing quantifiable performance ratings to evaluate the effectiveness of the legal function. From meeting budgets, managing work-flow, and providing responsive services to improving cross-functional communication and harnessing efficiencies from outside counsel, legal departments all over the world are turning to metrics, metrics, and more metrics.
W.J. Escher (*)
Solutus Legal Search, Redwood City, CA, USA
e-mail: jon@solutuslegal.com
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 361
K. Jacob et al. (eds.), Liquid Legal, Management for Professionals,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45868-7_23
This development raises the question as to whether general counsels and hiring managers should change the way they evaluate candidates for open positions in their legal departments. Is the traditional method of relying on a standard resume, the in-person interview, and pro-forma post-interview reference checks an adequate way to evaluate whether or not a candidate possesses those attributes that will succeed in a metrics-driven environment? Put another way, is the traditional candidate vetting process in alignment with the methods now being used to measure the overall effectiveness of the legal department? After all, no legal department can succeed in a metrics-driven world if the lawyers who comprise it are themselves improperly vetted on the very criteria the department itself will be measured against.
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