COVID-19 has altered the course of human events – reshaping companies, industries, national economies, and our society in previously unthinkable ways. It is at this juncture that law firm owners need to think beyond survival to the opportunities that this crisis might create, not only for their law firm but for the greater good. Chief among those, is the opportunity it has opened for law firms to hire talented people that might otherwise have trouble finding or keeping jobs in their area. Directly prior to Covid-19, our country was experiencing a steady decline in the national unemployment rate, and many law firms experienced difficulty finding and hiring great talent. But the Coronavirus has changed the paradigm. Many law firms, like other businesses, have been forced to lay off workers and downsize in response to COVID-19. As we move forward, an unprecedented number of people around the country, from new graduates to seasoned veterans, are and will be looking for new employment. The pool of available talent is suddenly both changing and expanding, and visionary law firm leaders will recognize this opportunity and capitalize on it. This shifting potential employee base can aid in your firm’s post-crisis recovery and growth. As management guru Jim Collins reminds us, making the leap from good to great starts with getting the right people on the bus.
Throughout history, economic hardships have created windows in which exceptional employees and leaders are widely available for a limited time. In the late 1940s, for example, many organizations were struggling. At Hewlett-Packard, the fledging electronic equipment maker that would eventually become one of America’s best-known technology companies, business was slow, and finances strained. Legions of great engineers began streaming out of closing or soon to be closed U.S. military labs. Hewlett-Packard’s legendary founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, realized these soon to be unemployed engineers created an amazing hiring opportunity. With clarity of vision, they seized this opportunity and began hiring these experienced engineers. When asked how they could afford to keep taking on new people in these difficult years, their answer was simple: “How could we not afford to?” Years later, when asked about the biggest contributors to HP’s success over the years, they routinely cited their willingness to invest in talent at that historic time of potential economic hardship.
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Claim your Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Session
While many lawyers become short-sighted or somewhat irrational during crises, the best law firm leaders will stay calm and use adversity to their advantage, sprinting away from their competitors and never looking back. To use another analogy, they bring in architects to plan a new building even as the firefighters work to save the old one.
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Claim your Free Law Firm Strategy Session
So how should visionary law firm leaders go about catching this once-in-a-century hiring opportunity? Through urgent and disciplined engagement in several initiatives: Ask your top people to list three to five great players they would like to have hired over the last five years and then check with those people for potential availability. Set up a task force to source potential candidates from other law firms that may now be either jobless or ready for change. Remember to interview and check references remotely with the same rigor you would in person. Go out of your way to motivate the best candidates. Don’t ignore the sourcing, retaining, and development of in-house talent.
This pandemic has created unprecedented trauma around the world. The economic fallout will be equally painful for many law firms. Most will attempt to focus on the short term of crisis management. But the smart money will be with the visionary law firm owners, who think long-term; They will not just survive. Instead, they will thrive, ushering in an era of even more significant economic growth and success. If your law firm is well capitalized and perceptive enough to hire for lasting greatness, now is the time.
