What to Look For When Hiring an Attorney

We talk to firm owners every week who are frustrated with their attorney hires. They posted the role, picked the candidate with the most impressive resume, and it didn't work out. Now they're starting over.

After five years of placing attorneys and legal support staff, we've learned that the things most firms look for are not the things that actually matter.

Don't Hire Off the Resume

This sounds strange coming from a recruiting firm. But a resume tells you where someone worked and for how long. It doesn't tell you if they can practice.

Some of the best attorneys we've placed had resumes that wouldn't impress anyone. Some of the worst had polished ones with big firm names all over them.

What we do instead is ask candidates to walk us through a matter they handled, start to finish. How the file came in, what their strategy was, where it got difficult, how they got it to resolution. If they can't tell that story clearly, that's a red flag.

A good hiring process starts with understanding what you actually need in the role

Ask for Numbers

A good attorney knows their numbers. Billable hours, write-downs, and whether the work actually collected. They know because they live by them.

When we ask a candidate what their billables looked like last quarter, we're not just checking the figure. We're checking whether they know it without pulling up their time sheets. If someone hesitates, they probably weren't tracking it closely. And if they weren't tracking it, they were probably falling short of it.

For junior candidates who don't have a track record yet, we look for competition. Former athletes, people who worked their way through school, anyone who's had to perform under pressure and came back for more.

Look for candidates who know their numbers and have a track record of hitting them.

Watch for Coachability

This is one of the biggest things we screen for. You can teach someone your practice areas, your systems, your file management. You cannot teach someone to take feedback well.

We ask candidates about a time a partner corrected them. The answer matters less than how they talk about it. If they get defensive in the interview, they'll get defensive the first time you redline their brief.

Look for candidates who know their numbers and have a track record of hitting their billables

Test for Grit

Practicing law is a grind. The person you hire needs to be comfortable with rejection, whether that's a motion denied, a deal that falls apart, or a client who walks, and still show up ready for the next one.

We've found the best way to test this is to ask about the hardest stretch of their career. What happened. How long did it last. What did they do about it.

The good ones get specific. The ones who give you a vague answer about staying positive are usually the ones who fold when it gets hard.

Don't Skip Culture

We've seen strong litigators get hired and then make the whole office miserable. They hit their numbers, but nobody wants to work with them. That creates a different kind of problem.

Before you bring someone on, think about your team. How do they communicate? What's the energy like? Will this person add to it or disrupt it?

The right culture fit matters just as much as the right skill set

Final Thoughts

Hiring takes time. Doing it well takes even more. If you're running a firm and trying to recruit at the same time, one of those things is going to suffer.

That's what we do at HunterLex. We find the right people so you can focus on running your practice.

If you're looking to fill an attorney or legal support role, reach out to us. We'd be happy to talk through what you need.