Honest answers to honest questions

How do recruitment agencies make money on permanent hires?

The simple answer is that the recruitment agency will charge the hiring company a percentage of a candidate's annual base salary. For junior to mid-level lawyers in the legal industry this is usually 20-25%. For senior and partner level hires the fee rates are usually 25-33%.

And on temporary hires?

At Ellaby Chamberlain, we do not recruit for temporary positions (yet!), so we cannot give any detail on this. Watch this space!

Are there exceptions on permanent hires?

Yes. You might have heard of things like retained search versus contingency recruitment. If you want more detail on this give us a call. In simple terms, however, just remember that your agent charges approximately 25% of your annual salary.

How are recruitment consultants remunerated?

This varies from agency to agency. Generally speaking, however, an agent earns a base salary plus commission. For any experienced consultant, commission makes up most of their remuneration.

Commission percentages are usually staggered. The more fees generated by a consultant in a quarter, the greater the percentage of those fees they earn as commission.

What happens if a candidate leaves after a short amount of time?

The recruitment fee is payable on a candidate's start date. There is then a rebate period, so if a candidate leaves their new role during that rebate period, the agency will need to repay some of the fee.

At Ellaby Chamberlain, we are proud to say we have the best rebate policy in the industry. We offer our law firm clients a 100% rebate if a candidate leaves within 6 months of joining. Why? Two reasons:

1. We are ultra-confident that our technical expertise and thorough vetting means that the candidates we place will want to stay for the long-term.
2. If a candidate leaves within 6-months it means we have not done our job properly and we don't deserve to keep that fee.

Does the recruitment agency fee impact a candidate's salary?

No.

The most important thing to our clients is hiring the best people. They can't do this if they pass the cost of recruitment onto their new hires. Put simply, they must pay new hires the same as their peers at the firm.

Why do law firms work with recruitment agencies?

A network of good recruitment consultants is worth its weight in gold to a partner looking to hire.

An experienced recruitment consultant will know where to search and has access to an extensive network of lawyers grown over many years. A partner or head of recruitment knows they will save a huge amount of time searching for talent by utilising these recruitment agents.

Furthermore, partners are loathed to waste their valuable time by interviewing poor quality candidates or those who are unlikely to accept an offer. Experienced recruitment agents are excellent at vetting candidates and ensuring only those who are good enough and committed enough will be put in front of the partners.

It is important to ask about the alternative too. Assembling and maintaining internal, in-house recruitment teams who can find candidates of the same quality as a network of high-quality recruitment agencies is almost impossible. Trying is often more expensive than total agency spending anyway.

Also, this is all about honesty so let's be honest, a recruitment fee of £25,000-£50,000 is small change when compared to the fees generated by a top-quality associate.

How many recruitment agents should I work with?

Three experienced recruitment consultants is about right for someone eager to cover the whole market.

You will hear many recruitment consultants pitch for exclusivity, but we do not recommend that approach. No matter how good a recruitment consultant is, they cannot cover the entire market by themselves. Someone will always have a better relationship with at least one firm.

We recommend arranging calls with 5-6 agents. Then whittle that down to 3 by judging which agents sound the most credible and committed.