4 Ways to Attract and Retain Top Legal Talent on a Tight Budget
Last month, Law Squared + Law Ninjas hosted their first-ever UK GC Summit for an action-packed day of thought-provoking discussion and debate. During a session on how to attract, retain, and reward talent, our panellists outlined some steps for budget-conscious in-house legal teams on keeping prospective and existing employees happy.
In 2024, why are in-house legal teams finding it so difficult to attract and retain top talent?
First, the demand for highly specialised skill sets is fast-growing, making it harder for hiring managers to source legal talent with the necessary niche expertise, be it cybersecurity, environmental law, digital privacy, industry knowledge, or the global regulatory landscape.
Secondly, in a post-pandemic world, the rise of flexible and hybrid work arrangements has contributed to a shift in employee expectations. As a result, in-house legal teams must find ways to optimise productivity while accommodating evolving worker preferences.
Finally, ample employment opportunities in the legal sector are driving fierce competition for top candidates, who can take their pick of the most appealing roles. Indeed, Thomson Reuters’ 2024 report on the State of the U.S. Legal Market warns of an impending "talent war" in the legal industry, with skilled lawyers in high demand commanding increasingly competitive salaries. This is particularly concerning for Australian employers; already losing a significant portion of their country’s brightest talent to high-salaried positions overseas.
All of this begs the question, are employers with the heftiest budgets scooping up the cream of the legal crop?
Fortunately, our panellists agreed that financially-strained teams have nothing to worry about. Yes, the right salary and an appealing benefits package will always be top considerations for job candidates, but in-house legal teams can also focus on fostering a healthy and happy workplace, creating space for professional development, and providing opportunities for workers to complete meaningful and fulfilling work.
Here are their four tips for attracting and retaining premium legal talent on a shoestring budget.
1. Meet Employees in the Middle
According to LawyersWeekly, work-from-home policies are now sought-after by a whopping 90% of legal sector job candidates. Consequently, several industry recruiters have warned employers that failing to offer workplace flexibility could lead to them becoming second and third-tier choices.
“Workplace flexibility has certainly become a key recruitment tool for us,” says Alex Pharoah, Country Head Legal, UK, ABN AMRO. He noted that it is especially important for in-house legal teams to provide flexible working options for roles that periodically demand long hours or weekend work. “If we expect our people to work late on occasion, they should also be able to work flexibly,” he said.
But of course - as Frances Coats, Group General Counsel, Howden Group Holdings was quick to remind Summit attendees - attracting talent doesn't mean letting people do what they want, when they want, and where they want. “To attract Gen Z” she says, “there needs to be a meeting in the middle.” That means establishing a flexible working policy that accommodates the various needs of the workforce, while also outlining clear and reasonable expectations.
UK GC Summit keynote speaker, and Founder + Director of Law Squared, Demetrio Zema, believes that when transitioning to fully or hybrid working, adoption of cloud-based technologies and platforms to increase efficiencies and remove administrative tasks are especially important.
He says: “By embracing emerging technologies to increase efficiencies, we’ve been able to minimise administrative burdens and enable our team to focus their time and energy on matters which lead to client impact and positive workplace culture and behaviour.”
2. Prioritise Open Communication
In-house legal teams can allocate their funds and resources most effectively if they truly understand the aspirations and motivations of each of their team members.
There’s a notable difference, for example, between an employee whose top priority is maintaining a healthy work-life balance and one who has already carved out their next four career moves. Neither is wrong, but they shouldn’t be treated homogeneously.
“Open communication is key because not everyone is looking for the same thing,” said Coats. “We need to know who [our employees] are and they need to know who we are. If we can meet their expectations, they can be retained.”
Fostering open relationships with employees also makes it easier to assign work that they will find interesting, meaningful, and challenging. “Get to know what makes your people tick and what they get excited about,” said Xavier Langlois, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Talent Officer, Beamery. “Some will get excited about closing deals, others about AI.” Employees are far more likely to stick around when they are content in their day-to-day work.
3. Get Creative With Professional Development Opportunities
How do in-house legal teams attract and retain the most ambitious employees when they cannot afford to fund additional qualifications or send their teams to top-end overseas conferences?
According to our GC panellists, providing employees with tangible professional development opportunities certainly isn’t impossible on a tight budget, but it does require a spot of creativity.
Coats, for example, recalls how a restrictive budget inspired her former employer to involve the entire in-house legal team in its professional development initiatives. “One of our biggest achievements was building the team’s intranet in-house,” she said. “We sat the whole team down and asked them what they wanted and how we could help, and it created a real sense of community.”
Formalising employee mentoring and offering internal work rotations are other low-cost methods for driving learning and development within in-house legal teams. “If you can’t pay for external mentoring or coaching, there will be people in your network and your company who can do it for free, and you can always return the favour,” said Coats. The value of such schemes shouldn’t be underestimated, with a recent report finding that 36% of lawyers leave their roles due to a lack of mentorship and career guidance.
Zema agrees that ongoing professional development is key for engaging and retaining talent: “Over the past year, we have revamped our entire approach to professional development at Law Squared. We are acknowledging that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. By focusing on understanding individuals’ motivations, interests and strengths, we’ve been able to tailor personal and professional development opportunities that truly add value to their life and are aligned to the firm’s strategy.”
4. Bolster Teams With Innovative Engagement Models
Amidst ongoing staffing challenges, in-house legal teams are prone to burdening lawyers with more responsibilities and work that falls outside of their usual remit. Over time, this contributes to poor morale, lack of motivation, and - in the worst-case scenario - total burnout. According to LSJ, many young lawyers are leaving the profession, citing exhaustion, long hours, and extreme stress.
With recruitment unlikely to be a quick fix in the current market, and constant pressure from the business to contain external costs, many in-house legal teams are exploring more innovative means of engaging legal talent to protect employee wellbeing - and thus improve retention.
Law Squared as a Service, or LSaaS, is one such innovative model gaining traction with GCs as a solution to this resourcing challenge, without adding headcount. Under the LSaaS model, GCs have on-demand access to the firm’s specialist in-house lawyers at a fixed-cost, monthly rate, right sized to their budget.
Unlike traditional outsourced engagements, contractors or secondee models, where businesses gain access to one lawyer with a specific skill set, LSaaS provides on-demand access to the entire Law Squared firm of commercial and specialist lawyers, coordinated by a dedicated Relationship Manager.
“LSaaS provides GCs with total control over their legal spend,” explains Zema “and the flexibility to scale up support during peak period, relieving the burden on employees.”
To find out more about LSaaS and how it could be a solution for managing BAU, coping with peak period or ad hoc projects and accessing specialist skill sets, reach out here.