Do Your Due Diligence
June 9, 2011 by Damian
Undertaking a due diligence exercise is something every commercial lawyer does over and over again during their legal career. If the exercise is not conducted properly, then it is likely that the end result will not be the best one for the parties involved in the deal.
As such, you would expect that lawyers would carry the same cautious and thorough approach through to their own careers but I am constantly surprised by how many don’t. I can understand that in some cases and for a variety of reasons, some people just want a job and any old job will do. For example, this could be because of financial considerations or to get out of a particulary unpleasant working environment.
However, when not faced with such pressing circumstances, there is just no excuse for not doing your due diligence. Moving jobs is one of the most important (and stressful) things that you can do and should be treated as such. Your due diligence should start even before you make contact with a recruitment consultant or an employer and it should start with yourself. By that I mean, you should be clear on exactly the reasons that you are looking to leave your current role and have a reasonably clear idea of where you want to go and why. Once you have clarified these things in your head, it is then time to update your CV.
Updating a CV can be a really tedious and time consuming task but it is impossible to overestimate its importance. Taking the time to present yourself in the most favourable light will pay dividends later in the process. If your CV does not accurately reflect your skills and experience, you will almost certainly not end up with the most suitable job available. (Writing an impressive CV is a completely separate post which I will get to one of these days).
The next step in the process is to contact a recruitment consultant or to directly approach an employer. Obviously I would recommend using a recruitment consultant and in the context of this post, one of the reasons why is that we can assist in this due diligence process. However, whichever route that you decide to go down, it is imperative that you find out as much about the various roles that are available as possible and only apply to those roles that you feel that you have a realistic chance of getting and more importantly, those roles that you are interested in getting.
Back when I started recruiting (which was in the last century), finding out this sort of information could be pretty difficult but in this internet age, there are all sorts of ways that you can locate information that will help you make the best decision. There are the obvious ways of looking at a website and partner profiles and doing Google searches. However, what you can also do is to try to find out whether you know anyone currently working at the firm or in similar firm, location or practice area and ask them their thoughts on the firm or the partner. As above, one of the reasons to use a recruitment consultant is that we can do some of this leg work for you.
The final place to do your due diligence is during the interview process. Before attending an interview, have a clear idea of what sort of information you need to know to make a fully informed decision if you are offered the job. This could be issues such as opportunities for advancement, what level of supervision you will be offered as well as the obvious ones about exactly what you will be doing and who you will be reporting to. Treat the interview as a two way process where not only are they trying to elicit relevant information from you but you are trying to do the same thing to them.
If you go through the recruitment process without undertaking the due diligence process above, you will almost certainly not end up in the most suitable job for you. However, if you do approach the process with the caution that it deserves, you will undoubtedly find that you get the job that will keep you interested and challenged for the foreseeable future.
Magic Circle Salaries
June 9, 2011 by Damian
For anyone heading over to London in the not too distant future, I thought that you would be interested in the following article from Legal Week.
http://www.legalweek.com/legal-week/news/2076615/clifford-chance-announces-pay-rises-city-associates
As you will see, even given the very poor exchange rate, these figures are still pretty mouth watering. (Even more frightening are the salaries on offer in the US firms based in London where you can add up to GBP15-20,000 onto these figures in some instances). Consequently, someone at the three year level at one of these Magic Circle firms can earn a similar wage to a senior associate in a top tier firm here.
That is the good news. The not so good news is that it is still very difficult to secure a role in one of these Magic Circle firms and only those working in a top tier or highly regarded boutique firm will stand any chance of availing themselves of one of these very attractive salaries. However for those of you who can, you literally will be ‘quids in’.
If anyone out there reading this would like to have a conversation with me about the London market, please get in touch now. I would be delighted to assist you.
Herbert Smith mulls Australia to jump-start global plan
May 17, 2011 by Damian
Here is the text of a very interesting story that I have just come across in The Lawyer. It looks like the Australian market is just about to get even more interesting! Again what ramifications this will have on the NZ market is extremely hard to judge but one certainty is that it will make Australia an even more attractive destination for our top lawyers who will be able to combine work of the very highest quality for an international law firm with a lifestyle that London lawyers can only dream of.
‘Herbert Smith is the latest firm to set its sights on the Australian market with a plan to follow the likes of Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance and Norton Rose Down Under.
While Herbert Smith has taken a conservative approach to international expansion in recent years, it is now understood to be eyeing an Australian launch.
It is unclear whether the firm is keen to identify a merger partner or whether, like A&O and Clifford Chance, it is planning to cherrypick teams to launch its own base. Sources suggest that it has held merger talks with Blake Dawson and Freehills.
“Blake Dawson has an excellent energy and natural resources practice, just like Herbert Smith,” said a partner at an Australian firm. “One of its main clients is BHP Billiton, so it would be a great fit for Herbies.”
Herbert Smith has long shown an interest in Australia, with the firm hiring directly from Australian law schools for a number of years, but it has upped its focus on the country recently.
A partner at another Australian firm said: “They seem to be paying more attention than ever before. For firms like Herbert Smith, there’s a feeling that if they don’t do something they might get left behind.”
Another partner at an international firm revealed: “In Sydney there’s quite a bit of talk that Herbert Smith will do something in Australia this year.”
Lawyers in Australia have reported a dramatic increase in the number of firms from the UK, US and Canada visiting the country over the past 12 months.
“Most major law firms have an enlivened interest in Australia and are working out what to do here,” said the head of one Australian law firm. “There have been more visitors over the past 12 months and things have taken on a heightened intensity since Christmas.”
This, along with the arrival of a number of UK-headquartered firms over the past 18 months, has led to unease among many partners in Australian firms.
“Quite a number of firms are really feeling the pinch,” admitted another local partner. “I think there’s dissension among partners in the likes of Freehills and to a lesser extent Blake Dawson. They’re both strong firms in their own right, but partners are wondering what the future holds.”
Herbert Smith did not return calls for comment. Blake Dawson denied that it is in merger talks with Herbert Smith.’
Interviewing Your Recruiter
April 12, 2011 by Damian
I have been doing legal recruitment for about 8 years in total and have interviewed literally hundreds and hundreds of candidates. By coming to see me, all of them, to one degree or another, were putting their future career in my hands which is quite a leap of faith on their behalf. They were trusting me to act professionally, to represent them in the best possible light, to respect their anonymity when necessary and to ensure that they get the best job going in the market. If I failed in any of these respects, this could have had significant ramifications for them in terms of their career.
I take these responsibilities very seriously and am always conscious of the integral role that I play in this (at times) life changing time in someone’s life. I work hard to establish a rapport with a candidate and try to convey an honest, transparent and friendly approach. The reason for this is that the recruitment process can get very involved. When a candidate is going through the process, I will be in contact with them most days in one form or the other and you end up getting to know your candidate very well and vice versa as it progresses. As such, it is absolutely vital that, from a candidate’s perspective, they are 100% comfortable in and confident with my approach.
So after 227 words, where am I going with this? Well, in all of my years of recruitment to date, only two candidates have really taken any time to question me about my background and my approach and asked me why I thought I was the best person to represent them. One of them was a senior finance lawyer on his way to the US who knew he could get a job there himself but did not have the time to pursue it. He sat back in his chair with his hands behind his head and grilled me for the first 20 minutes. Once I convinced him that I knew what I was doing, it became about him and the short story is that we placed him with a top tier US firm, he came back to NZ and is now a partner in a leading NZ firm.
The other time happened this week when a junior lawyer came to see me. I was initially a little surprised by his approach. ‘Can you tell me about your background?’ is usually a question I ask, not the candidate. This was not something that I expected from a recent graduate but ultimately it left me very impressed. This candidate wanted to be sure that I knew what I was doing, that I knew the market, that I could represent him in the way he wanted, that I was going to be transparent and professional and that ultimately, I was going to have his best interests at heart throughout the process.
On reflection, I don’t know why more candidates don’t want me to establish my credentials before I start trying to establish theirs. I have nothing to hide and am happy to answer any questions candidates have about my background (professionally speaking anyway – I really don’t fancy answering questions about my favourite colour or my favourite footballer ever. To save the trouble, the answers are ‘green’ and ‘Roy Keane’).
If you are not happy with my answers or my approach, go to see someone else who you feel more comfortable with but make sure you ask them the same questions. The consultant/candidate relationship is so important that you need to be absolutely convinced that you are dealing with someone who you trust and get on with. If that means me answering some questions at the start of the interview, then I have no problem with that.
So the moral of this piece is before you let your recruiter start interviewing you, feel free to take some time to interview them. Now I’m going to finish this to go do some interview preparation of my own for the candidate coming in to see me at 3pm today just in case she reads this before she comes in and has some questions for me…
Lawyer’s Weekly Guide To Overseas Legal Markets
March 24, 2011 by Damian
Here is a link to a Lawyer’s Weekly article which gives a really good overview of the oveseas legal recruitment markets – http://bit.ly/fbfTZ0.
It contains a really good guide about which markets are more receptive to overseas lawyers than others. On the whole, I think that the opinions outlined in the article are spot on although they do mention that Belfast is a better destination for overseas lawyers than Dublin. I’m not quite sure how they came to that conclusion as my wife (Kiwi lawyer) was the first NZ lawyer ever to be admitted in Northern Ireland back on 2003!
What I also found amusing is that when they are discussing the merits of Scotland as a destination, one of the downsides is that it is ‘very cold’ but this is not mentioned in the discussion of the pros and cons of moving to Russia!
Very interesting reading though and if it does spark any interest in investigating your options overseas, give me a call or drop me a line. I would be keen to discuss your chances.