Foreign Language Skills Increasingly Required
As globalization plays an increasing role in law firms’ practices, we are seeing foreign language fluency becoming a big plus for applicants at all levels. The decreased value of the U.S. dollar is drawing a lot of foreign investment into U.S. transactions and the poor quality of professional legal document translators is causing many firms to seek capability where ever they can. While the primary push is for associates who speak a second language, the lack of bilingual attorneys in languages other than Spanish is causing firms to seek out secretaries, paralegals and even administrative employees who speak German, French and Chinese. While English is the worldwide language of business, parties often revert to their own language when negotiations get tough. Although language ability is a plus for many firms, Sheppard, Mullin in Los Angeles is one firm that virtually requires it of new associates. Beyond the expanded capability, the requirement itself has registered well with clients as a demonstration of a high service ethic.

In-house Day Care
Many firms that provide day care supplements, emergency day care and similar benefits find them to be among the most powerful recruitment and retention tools. But the cost and licensing regulations of operating a full-blown day care center has been beyond even many of the largest firms. Now a Boston based company (www.brighthorizons.com), offers outsourced day care for law firms and other businesses. Among firms using outsourced day care are Alston & Bird, Binham McCutchen, Wilmer Cutler and Latham & Watkins.

Temporary Law Firm Executives
Law firms have used temporary secretaries for years and, in some cities, temporary attorneys and paralegals have become a popular way of staffing large projects. Increasingly law firms are looking at temporaries to fill department head level staff positions during intermediate term vacancies. A number of firms we work with have had success using temporary HR Directors, Marketing Directors, Office Administrators and even Technology Directors during family leaves, short term health disabilities and in the gap while replacements are being recruited for a departed manager. The advantage to the temp is the lower stress level, the ability to work fewer hours (temps normally work 40 hours while full-time executives average 50+ hours) and a lower burnout factor. The downside is that temps working through an agency normally earn about two-thirds of a full-time manager. For law firms the advantage is the ability to staff up for peak periods like summer recruiting season, computer conversions, benefit plan roll outs and similar unique events.

Internships
Internships aren’t just for law students anymore. Entrepreneurial law firm COO’s and HR Directors are finding that interns are a great resource for handling significant projects that never seem to get done. Many MBA and underclass business programs require an internship or offer it as an alternative to a thesis. While many large accounting and consulting firms pay interns, the Fair Labor Standards Act offers a specific exemption for the requirement that interns be paid provided that certain criteria are met (among other things, they must be closely supervised and can’t displace regular employees). One HR Director tells us that “as long as you are willing to mix real training and shadowing opportunities with grunt work, there are lots of students willing to work for the experience on their resume.” Suggested intern projects are coordinating employee evaluations, assembling statistics for partner compensation review, creating marketing data bases and creating procedural manuals.

Paternity
If it seems like fathers are expressing the need for greater time to deal with family issues, it’s probably because they are. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, fathers in 1977 spent 1.8 hours per workday with their children. In 2002 the figure jumped to 3.4 hours. Men are also taking on a bigger share of work around the house. In 1977 married men spent an average of 1.2 hours per workday doing household chores compared to 3.3 hours for married women. In 2002 the figure is 1.9 hours for men and 2.7 hours for women. The result is that in 1992 68% of college educated men sought jobs with more responsibility. In 2002 that figure is 52%. The result of all this is, despite the increased availability of child care options and working women, the average couple spends a combined average of 6.1 hours a day with their children compared to 5.1 in 1977.

Legal Resource Group LLC specializes in serving the executive and administrative recruiting needs of law firms. We maintain the largest data base of law firm executive and Administrative staff in the world.  This allows us to immediately identify the very best candidates. We find the best people, complete searches faster and have extremely reasonable fees. For further information, visit our website at www.LRGLLC.com , contact us by e-mail at inquiries@LRGLLC.com or by phone at 1-800-688-4147.