Asking Effective Interview Questions

Analyzing Attorneys’ Potential

In the past couple of years, a growing number of law firms have included some of their marketing and business development professionals in candidate interviews, according to Melissa Peters, President of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants and Owner of legal recruiting company MP Legal Search.

“If you’re going to spend a lot of money bringing in a partner who has clients, you want that portable business to come,” Peters says. “It’s also to [find out] what kind of work you do for that client. Is that duplicative of what we do?”

When firms get serious about a candidate, some, under the cloak of confidentiality, are discussing marketing to specific clients, she says — such as what budget candidates are seeking, trips they might take and pitch materials they may need.

“It’s really a two-way street,” she says. “The team is sometimes trying to explain to the candidate, ‘This is why we’d be great for you. We can offer this, this, and this.’ That used to be something you talked about once you got there.”

Firms can also benefit from seeking junior candidates who have a business development mindset, Fontaine says.

“It’s so important for the firm’s growth — [and] also for the long-term survivability of the candidate within the firm,” she says. “An employer might want to bring up the expectations to make certain levels of partnership and ask a candidate, ‘Have you given some thought to future business development? What steps do you think you might take, and what backing are you expecting from the firm to help you?’”

Firms can also benefit from seeking junior candidates who have a business development mindset.

Some firms are interested in finding out how candidates generally foster and manage client relationships, which can potentially lead to referrals and other favorable outcomes, according to Sullivan.

“It relates to how [lawyers] keep them apprised of the case,” she says. “Regulatory scrutiny [and] compliance concerns have increased. A question you may be asking is, ‘How are you proactively communicating what may impact [clients] in this new legal landscape, versus waiting for the client to bring us an issue and trying to solve that?’”

In addition to giving firms a chance to get to know job candidates, the interview process can provide an opportunity to highlight the advantages of working at a firm — such as its friendly, supportive atmosphere. Peters, though, tells candidates she assists not to ask what a firm’s workplace culture is like.

“Everyone’s going to say it’s a collaborative, congenial culture,” she says. “So that's useless.”

A firm can instead opt to physically show prospective employees its culture — having them meet with other lateral partners, for instance, to ask how they integrated their practice into the firm and if they’ve gotten any cross-referral work.

“That speaks to the culture,” Peters says. “It’s just too easy to say, ‘What’s the environment like?’ and they just throw out buzzwords. Cross-referral work is big for partners. What are the statistics on that?”

Asking which elements make candidates’ day-to-day work experience enjoyable — and what aspects prompted them to stay at past organizations — can help firms discern if any of the proposed job components might make them happy, Sullivan says.

“Hopefully, that also helps them inquire [about] the firm’s culture,” she says. “If your firm has mentorship, legal career paths and upskilling, ask questions that will align with your culture to uncover [if] a candidate has those types of drivers, as well.”

Asking which elements make candidates’ day-to-day work experience enjoyable — and what aspects prompted them to stay at past organizations — can help firms discern if any of the proposed job components might make them happy.

Maximizing Interview Questions’ Effect

The interview process can be lengthy; bringing a new partner on board, Peters says, can potentially take six rounds of interviews over the course of a year. She tells candidates to never assume interviewers in subsequent rounds will know what happened in the first one.

“They should, but they’re busy — so round two, three, four, be prepared to answer the same question 10 different times,” Peters says. “Sometimes, even if you told Bob why you’re leaving your current firm, I want to hear what [you’ll] say to me. Are you saying something similar? Are you surprised or annoyed I’m asking? I want to know that.”

Nearly a third of firms feel inconsistent interviewing practices are a persistent challenge in the lateral partner hiring process, according to recent research from legal market intelligence provider Leopard Solutions.

Some law firms let individual interviewers decide what to ask or assign specific questions to firm members. Other firms ask all the candidates for a position the same questions — which Fontaine says is probably an ideal approach to ensure the employer is comparing apples to apples.

To help prep their interviewing teams to successfully pose questions, firms may want to consider providing specialized training.

“Lawyers have such different personalities,” Fontaine says. “Sometimes we see litigation lawyers act as if they’re conducting a hostile witness cross-examination — which is sort of a behavioral interview to determine how candidates handle stress, but not necessarily the most welcoming way for a candidate to experience your law firm.”

During an interview, potential hires understandably may be more focused on selling themselves than investigating what the role entails; however, it’s important they fully understand what the firm expects. They might be told the organization’s billing requirement is only 1,750 hours, for example, when actually most associates are billing 2,000 on average, and to get a bonus, 2,100 hours are needed.

A candidate can find that information out, Peters says, by asking what billing is required and what is typical.

“Law firms want their hires to stick,” she says. “Attrition costs them a lot of money, and it’s a tough market. They appreciate some of those more nuanced questions at the front end. They look at it as, ‘This lawyer is serious and knows what they want — if we don’t have the right answer, this won’t be a good hire; and we would rather know that now.’”