Position Summary

This position is responsible for the direction, coordination and overall management of lateral and law student recruiting primarily for the Austin, Dallas and Houston offices, including but not limited to: recruitment and integration of lateral lawyers, management of the fall recruitment process and summer associate program, new associate orientation and integration, mentor program, and various related talent management duties. 

Essential Functions

General Recruiting Functions

• Works in partnership with Director of Recruiting, Department Heads, Practice Leaders, and Office Managing Partners to identify and attract lateral candidates.
• Reports competitive market intelligence on hiring statistics, opportunities and risk assessments.
• Collaborates with sponsoring partners and local administrative teams to guide lateral candidates through the recruiting and onboarding processes, ensuring the experience is representative of the Firm's standards of excellence.
• Teams with attorneys and Business Development to ensure the seamless transition of each lateral’s integration and business development efforts.
• Develops and analyzes reports and projections regarding market trends in diversity, legal recruiting, and retention.
• Prescreens all lateral attorney and law student applications for employment and ensures that appropriate correspondence is produced and that appropriate records are maintained.
• Interviews candidates and discusses the Firm's recruitment procedures and policies.
• Manages formal due diligence and offer process for lateral hires.
• Serves as the contact with all outside organizations involved in the legal recruiting process including but not limited to: legal search firms, the National Association for Law Placement, other law firms and other professional organizations.
• Develops, prepares and analyzes reports, projections and statistics regarding market hiring, general management and other attorney-related personnel issues for use by Firm management.
• Active member of Recruiting and Summer Associate Committees.
• Prepares and manages legal recruiting annual budget.

Summer Associate Program

• Designs, attends, and implements all components of summer program, including but not limited to: on-campus and call-back interview process, pre-employment communications, orientation, training, work assignments, educational and social events and evaluation process.
• Manages Summer Associate mentoring program.
• Maintains summer associate files, work assignments, evaluation forms/processes; follows up with assigning attorney regarding feedback to summer associates.
• Counsels and advises Summer Associates throughout the summer on firm policies, procedures and other firm matters.
• Prepares and monitors Summer Associate program annual budget.
• Plans and coordinates fall and off-season law school recruiting efforts such as receptions and targeted correspondence.

New Associate Program

• Manages (in conjunction with the Firmwide recruiting team) pre-employment correspondence to entry-level associates, new hire start dates, moving and bar-related expenses/reimbursement and stipend.
• Disseminates information regarding new hires to appropriate firm personnel.
• Develops orientation program and oversees integration of new attorneys.
• Communicates with new associates about bar application process, firm policies, and manages reimbursement process for bar application fees.
• Coordinates first year mentoring program.
• Prepares and manages first year associate program annual budget.

Other Responsibilities

• Works in conjunction with Firmwide Recruiting team to update NALP form and related Firm materials by collaborating with Marketing Department on recruiting-related promotional materials including recruiting portion of Firm's Web Site, Firmwide Recruiting Brochure, ads and other recruiting pieces, as needed.
• Works with Legal Recruiting Team in the various Reed Smith markets to coordinate recruiting efforts, Summer/New Associate programs. Meets regularly with other recruiting managers to make recommendations for strategic development of recruiting efforts and summer programs.
• Participates in various HR, Recruiting and Summer Committee meetings and Firmwide attorney meetings, as scheduled.
• Understands and is familiar with Firm systems, policies, politics and procedures, client services and future goals in order to troubleshoot questions, problems or concerns.
• The Manager should maintain memberships in the National Association for Law Placement and other professional organizations as appropriate.
• Initiate process improvement ideas and participate in projects aimed towards streamlining and enhancing our internal procedures.
• Performs other projects and tasks as assigned.