I have never really seen myself as a salesperson.
That probably sounds strange coming from a headhunter.
When a firm or a company retains me to fill a role, they are not paying me to post a job and wait. They are paying me to go into the market, find the lawyers they actually want, and get them to the table. And most of those lawyers were not looking to move. So part of the job, honestly, is convincing people. There is no way around that.
But convincing someone and understanding someone are not the same thing.
If I call a lawyer who is happy where he is and open with "I have an exciting opportunity," I have already lost him. He has a good job. He does not need me. Before I ever talk about a role, I need to understand the person on the other end of the phone.
So the first conversation is not a pitch. It is questions.
Partnership. Better mentorship. Different work. More money. Pivoting in-house to build something with one company. A bigger platform, or a smaller one. I am not looking for the answer that helps me close. I am looking for the real one.
Because sometimes the real answer is that they should stay put. And if that is the case, that is what I tell them. If the role I am working on is not genuinely better for them, I am not going to talk them into it. I will just remember them. Maybe in six months something lands on my desk that actually fits. Maybe it is three years. Maybe I place them late in their career. Maybe they end up hiring me one day. Maybe none of that happens, and that is fine too.
That is what recruitment is to me.
It works the same way on the other side of the table. When a firm or a company brings me in, I am not just going to tell them what they want to hear about their search. If the role is not positioned right, if the compensation is off market, or if what they are asking for does not exist at the level they are targeting, I will say so.
Part of what I bring is real market intelligence. What lawyers at their level are actually being paid, who is moving and why, what is realistic and what is not, delivered in a way they can take back and use internally. A search runs better when everyone is working from the truth.
None of this means I am soft. I am a headhunter. I go after the people my clients need, I approach them directly, and I create interest where there was not any before. That is the job, and I am good at it.
The relationship just comes before the placement.
For the firms and companies I work with, that means I am not going to send you someone just to fill a seat and collect a fee. For the lawyers I talk to, it means I am not going to move you unless it is genuinely the right move. I go hard finding the right person. I do not go hard convincing them. That is how I have always done this, and it is the only way I know how to.
That is how I have always tried to recruit.