Behavioral Interviews are Becoming a New Trend

According to Desiree Lebar, recruiting specialist at Warren Recruiting, behavior based interviewing is becoming more common. Often employers will consider a candidate's past performance as being the best predictor of future performance. So, rather than the typical interview questions on your background and experience, you will you need to be prepared to discuss detailed examples of your work experiences.

The best way to prepare is to think of examples where you have successfully used the skills you've acquired. Take the time to compile a list of responses to both types of questions. Itemize your skills, values, and interests as well as your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on and highlight what you can do to benefit the firm rather than just what you are interested in. Also prepare a list of questions you want to ask the interviewer. Remember, when you’ve gotten the opportunity to meet with a firm and participate in an interview, that means the firm already believes the experience reflected in your resume qualifies you for the position. Now, it’s your job to elaborate on your experience and convince them why you are the best candidate for them!

Have more questions? Ask Desiree Lebar.

Welcome Vanessa Vance

Warren Recruiting is pleased to announce the addition of Vanessa Vance, Esq.

Vanessa brings over two decades of legal industry knowledge and hands-on experience to Warren Recruiting. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University and South Texas College of Law, having received Distinguished Student and Dean's List honors at both. Vanessa worked her way from associate to partner where she was responsible for the hiring and management of a large team of support staff and associates, as well as an enormous docket of active litigation files. She has a real-world, first-hand perspective as to the innate issues related to being an associate and partner in various-sized law firms, and this insight makes her well-equipped to successfully assist clients and candidates seeking both attorney and partner placements.

Vanessa has been a frequent speaker at many CLE seminars. She is a certified mediator and a member of the State Bar of Texas. In addition, she is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, Houston Bar Foundation and Litigation Counsel of America, and a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas. Vanessa was previously named Texas Rising Star by Law & Politics & Texas Monthly Magazine and One of Houston's Professionals on the Fast Track by Houston's H Magazine.

Vanessa resides in Houston with her husband and two sons, and Golden Retriever Power Princess Dominique. They enjoy all outdoor activities, especially biking, snow skiing, boating, baseball and traveling.

How can Vanessa help you upgrade your career?

New Year, New Economy, New Job

Over the last two years, we have heard nothing but negative news about the state of our economy regarding companies making continual layoffs as well as the unemployment rate for our country continue to creep towards 10%. Towards the end of 2010, Warren Recruiting started to see a sharp increase in the number of open jobs we had from our clients. We began to receive calls from clients that hadn’t hired in over a year, letting us know that deal flow had picked up and they need more people.

Across the nation, companies are beginning to add new employees to their workforce. In a recent USAToday article published 1/6/2011, “Through 2011, employers will add 183,000 jobs a month — vs. 94,000 a month in 2010, according to the average forecast of 28 economists surveyed by USA TODAY.” If you have been sitting and waiting for things to improve before you make your next career move, stop procrastinating because things are finally getting better and it’s a new year and time for a new opportunity!

Legal Sector Gained 1000 New Jobs in August

The Bureau of Labor Statistics's monthly employment report for August was released early Friday and the news was still a bit glum overall--the U.S. economy lost a total of 54,000 jobs. But the news for lawyers and legal industry employees was a bit brighter.

The legal sector handed out 1,000 jobs last month, marking the second straight month of improved numbers for the industry.

BLS originally reported that the field lost 800 jobs in July, but that number has since been readjusted to show an increase of 300 positions. While those numbers lag behind reports from August 2009 by more than 14,000 jobs, they still represent an improvement over the previous two months. In June and May combined, legal services positions declined by almost 4,000. (See our jobs reports for July, June, and May.)

The country's overall unemployment rate inched up, from 9.5 to 9.6 percent. Despite modest improvement in the private sector--which had 67,000 new hires--the overall employment numbers took a hit, in large part, due to the evaporation of government jobs. In August, government employment dropped by 121,000, as 114,000 of the remaining temporary U.S. Census workers completed their duties.

The health care and construction industries showed more progress than most, with 28,000 and 19,000 new jobs, respectively.

For more information about jobs in your area, visit www.WarrenRecruiting.com


source: AM Law Daily

A Strong and Healthy 2010

Despite a few recent layoff announcements from Mayer Brown and a couple other big law firms, we are seeing a huge increase in overall hiring. As predicted in the first quarter of 2009 by Morgan Warren, founder of Warren Recruiting, the increase in 2010 hiring is being seen in all ranks of attorneys and staff. The largest concentrated growth is from mid size law firms who are looking for talented, seasoned attorneys and staffers to handle a myriad of cases and deals.

The IP, Bankruptcy, Litigation and Partner level searches are back to 2008 (very high) levels. Real Estate and Finance is still lagging a bit however the growth of new opportunities has been on the rise. Warren Recruiting remains optimistic that 2010 will continue to be a very strong year for talented law professionals.

On an international level, we have seen a dramatic drop in new opportunities particularly within Asia who is suffering from over expansion in 2009 and is looking to absorb the glut of attorneys hired in the past three years. The challenges in Greece have not had a noticeable impact in the EU nor do we anticipate seeing any direct impact.

Let us know if you have specific questions about particular verticals within the legal space.

A new model for a new economy

Over the past decade we’ve witnessed unprecedented growth in the legal economy prompted by a number of change factors including technology, a strong global economy and the infusion of top managers. The technology responsible for this growth includes the Internet, VOIP, outsourced cheaper partners, better research tools and the ubiquitous blackberry.

The economy fueled by cheap debt, a robust capital market and low taxes led to an increased need (Mr . Supply meets Ms. Demand) of top legal talent. The technology leaps which was referenced earlier was also responsible for the surge in IP Attorneys which then fed the Corporate Attorneys and is now feeding the restructuring attorneys.

Along the way the law firms hired outsiders to help them lead their companies. These outsiders joined the firms with of a wealth of management speak and were responsible for significant maturity in financial, marketing, human capital and supply chain issues. Amidst the efficiencies achieved perhaps no greater was that of the economy of scale which led to the growth of the mega-firms. These mega-firms with hundreds of lawyers, regional and international offices, and a wide spectrum of service offerings.

The megafirms also hired Madison Avenue ad agencies who helped craft unique messages about the brand (aka the firm). These sophisticated firms also changed their names from an alphabet soup of partners names to a single strong name like Coke or Amazon.

With the current recession in full swing, these change factors are being put to the test. Can the reduced fees sustain the cost of operating the mega firms? Will the regional firms become dominant again? If there were economies of scale a few years ago, one would logically assume it’s more important than ever. This of course means the firms are going to have to find new ways to cut costs and further leverage these change factors.

Warren Recruiting is looking forward to seeing the impact of the Change Factors and helping the legal landscape evolve.

Making Progress?

Perhaps it’s just the beautiful weather, or because baseball is back in season but the economy seems to doing better (or sucking less if you’re a half empty kind of person). The most recent data points (GDP, bank loans, retail numbers, etc) are all pointing that the economy is getting healthier. This is great news and should lead to the end of the layoffs and in the near future should lead to increased hiring. In the past weeks, Warren Recruiting has seen more new positions than any period since November 2008.

While the recession marathon is hardly over, we’ve now reached a sustainable stride and if we can keep it up, we will certainly reach a full recovery. To learn more about our new job orders, our client’s needs or how to land the next big position, give us a call.