First among counsels: Delivering recruitment services in a difficult market

Starting a business is never easy, but what about deciding to launch a legal recruitment company in the middle of an economic downturn, when fewer firms are looking to recruit and high-calibre candidates are more nervous about moving? For First Counsel, launched in the spring of 2003, it was merely a challenge to be met head on. Caroline Poynton talks to directors Chris Cayley, William Cock and Tim Skipper about the merits of their business case and how they intend to meet the needs of the legal marketplace, despite the competition.

In a slow economy, recruitment can be one of the first areas to suffer. Lawyers are more likely to stick to job security with a firm they know well, rather than face the risk of moving to an unknown future, which may promise more money and career opportunities, but lacks the certainty of an existing role. The lawyer’s instinct to wait for better days is paralleled by the business above, as it cuts recruitment expenditure and looks to improve retention strategies by better managing its existing workforce.

First Counsel directors Chris Cayley, William Cock and Tim Skipper know that times are hard. “I think our biggest challenge is not necessarily our competitors but the market itself, which hasn’t been easy for the last year to 18 months,” says Cock. They agree that the market was very different in the mid to late 90s, when they were all working at legal consultancy Quarry Dougall (QD). At that time, recruitment was booming and there were only two or three acknowledged leaders in the recruitment field: QD, ZMB, Taylor Root and a few others. Today, the market is smaller and there are many more competitors – around 20-30 in private practice, for example.

It may seem strange, therefore, that in April 2003, in the face of all the potential difficulties of a downturn, Cayley, Cock and Skipper launched their recruitment firm, First Counsel. It was a brave move but one that seems based on good reason as the business has been doing very well: they’re ahead of budget with a strong financial performance so far; they have recently hired a further fee-earning recruiter increasing the company’s core team to six, plus an office manager; and they are looking forward to steady growth, with several further appointments planned over the course of 2004.

In addition, they are already considering bolting-on additional elements to the business, which will provide extra services to enhance their client offerings. With only eight months behind them it is, of course, early days, but there are some indicators that First Counsel might have the right idea. For a start, they focus strictly on the legal profession and have no plans to diversify into any other market. The business is also divided into three strands: the first managed by Cayley and Cock dealing with the recruitment of private-practice lawyers; the second managed by Skipper and Gary Jones, focusing on recruitment into private-practice business support; and the third, managed by Paul Avon and latest hire, Katherine Levy, which deals with the recruitment of in-house lawyers. By covering every avenue of legal recruitment, First Counsel hopes to fulfil its primary ambition of being a first port of call for law firms and in-house legal teams.

As a business located in London, this aim could be limited by the assumption that First Counsel only deals with City recruitment, but Cayley is keen to demonstrate that they recruit to firms of any size and in any location. “In our first eight months, we’ve placed people in Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds and Nottingham, as well as London,” he says.

The recruitment areas of the business are also extensive with private practice, in house and business support providing plenty of avenues to sustain the business through difficult times. The business support wing is particularly interesting as it addresses a trend in law firms that are looking to run their businesses more effectively by bringing in HR, marketing, IT, KM and risk professionals. “One reason we’ve done this is that law firms are recruiting heavily in this area and the other reason is that we have the necessary experience to manage it effectively,” says Skipper. Sure enough, Skipper has been recruiting in business support since 1995. Jones, who also manages the area, was formerly a head of HR at Linklaters and prior to that, had responsibility for senior business support recruitment at the firm. He managed the recruitment of over 100 people in a two-year period as the HR, finance, IT and marketing departments all went through restructures and grew in size.

As Managing Partner has witnessed over recent years, law firms are becoming more sophisticated in their approach to management. Where management roles were undertaken by fee earners, who attempted to split client work with management responsibility, inevitably with varying success, the marketing, HR and IT department are now common attributes of the modern legal business. Responding to this with a recruitment division dedicated to law-firm business support makes a lot of sense, but putting it under one roof with general private practice and in-house recruitment, makes First Counsel something of a unique proposition. “There isn’t anybody out there who can honestly say that they can provide law firms with all of their senior people,” says Skipper. “Most firms will go to one agency to recruit an HR person and another for a finance person. We can recruit a finance director, head of knowledge management, head of CRM, a risk expert or a partner into a law firm.” He adds that they have already applied this holistic approach, recently placing two lawyers, two HR professionals and a marketing manager in a leading national firm.

This all sounds very promising, but with a slow market, the number of headhunters has grown as they are used by firms seeking quality lawyers in a quieter market. Similarly, those lawyers, faced with uncertainty, could be forgiven for sitting back to see what headhunters call and with what opportunities, rather than wasting precious time actively seeking opportunities that may not even be there. More seriously, the success of the headhunters could be seriously damaging for a start-up such as First Counsel. Cock disagrees, saying: “The headhunting route was something that we thought about, but we decided to stick with the more traditional agency approach, so that we could provide a more consultative service.” He goes on to explain that whereas headhunters will be retained by one firm to sell one opportunity to potential lawyers, First Counsel takes instructions from many of the top law firms of all shapes and sizes and in all geographic locations. Hence, when a lawyer comes looking for work, they are able to approach a number of firms on their behalf, and provide them with a whole view of the market. Cayley agrees, adding: “There’s an element of getting back to good consultancy and market knowledge so that we can offer people genuine career advice rather than just a list of jobs.”

First Counsel’s determination to be a people business with a consultative approach is born out by the company website, which repeatedly talks about a philosophy of listening and understanding individual lawyers and the marketplace. We are told that lawyers are given an all-round advisory service rather than merely job opportunities, all underpinned by the experience of the core team, who have many years of working in the legal field. Such an approach might seem incongruous to many a recruitment business that thrives on getting “bums on seats”, with the ongoing cash flow that such quick turnover ensures. Cock argues, however, that First Counsel’s business structure is such that they can afford to take the medium and long-term view and indeed, that is exactly what they intend to do. “Some of the larger agencies have struggled because they’re answerable to the City, Stock Exchange or private investors who obviously want to see immediate results,” he says. “We, on the other hand, finance this business ourselves, so we can make our own decisions about where this business goes and we can genuinely say that we look to the medium/long-term relationships rather than short term.”

First Counsel may still be very young and in any market, it takes time to build business stability, sustained profit and growth. However, the signs so far look promising. With a good understanding of the legal market and the needs of its lawyers, some sensible ideas for building across legal business sectors, and a positive outlook for ongoing business development, there seems to be every reason to be confident. And, for the lawyers, law firms and companies looking for new opportunities, First Counsel could well prove to be a very worthwhile port of call.

Chris Cayley, William Cock and Tim Skipper are directors at First Counsel. For further information, Tim Skipper can be contacted at: tim.skipper@first-counsel.co.uk.