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Headhunter Pays Prospects a Bonus

Here is a new twist in the high-stakes game of legal recruiting -- if you get hired, the headhunter pays you a $10,000 bonus. That's the pitch announced yesterday by Lateral Link, a recruiting firm founded by three Harvard Law School grads.

They call themselves a "Web 2.0" recruiting firm. What that means, as they explain it, is that they don't make cold calls to cull prospects. Instead, they rely on their Web site as a recruiting tool and build a database of both jobs and candidates. The efficiencies they achieve allow them to pay the bonus.

Of course, as with every good deal involving lawyers, there is the fine print. Proviso #1 is that you get the placement bonus only if the base salary of your new job is at least $135,000. Proviso #2 is that the placement service is only available to "elite" attorneys. "In order to become a member of the Lateral Link network," the Web site explains, "attorneys must have graduated from a top law school, or have exceptional professional credentials."

And then there is the question of whether this is kosher. Right there on the company's Web site is an article, originally from the Los Angeles Daily Journal, that suggests the bonus practice may be unethical by recruiting-industry norms. The article quotes Marina Sirras, president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants, who, when asked about the bonus, replied: "Wow. That is definitely against our code of ethics. That is a no-no, and I consider it very unethical."

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on March 16, 2007 at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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