The thoughts on the Cayman Islands Legal Job Market from our newly promoted Legal Consultant, Xavier Cheng.

Is the Legal Job Market Becoming More Candidate-Driven?

There appears to be an increasing number of dropouts in the market lately. On one hand, recruiters are getting rejections from candidates to accept. On the other hand, clients are puzzled about what is going on. Is there something wrong with their offers? Who should be blamed?

The answer seems to be extremely simple, supply and demand. With the increase of work in the pipeline and headcount budgets, more vacancies are being generated. Quality candidates, the ones that CML work with, are getting multiple offers. With options, there are selections and decision follows. Given the fact that any given lawyer can only be employed by one firm at a time, someone has to suffer from the decision to reject.

In the past months, I have heard complaints from clients where a candidate got counter-offered and backed out from the offer. Also, I have heard stories where a candidate got 4 offers from a recruiter but ending up accepting the 5th one, a simple referral from a family friend who happens to be a Partner as well. The amount of manpower, energy, time and upward clearance to get an offer will be all wasted because of a simple no from a candidate.

So, How Can Our Clients React to the Legal Market?

I remember hearing a client of mine said recently “…you won’t believe it and I don’t believe it myself, but you have wine and dine candidates now….”. To a certain extent, it is very true. Recruitment is getting more personal, a straightforward interview process with rounds and rounds of meetings doesn’t work anymore.

For quality candidates equipped with options and when compensation is no longer a strong differentiator, clients are trying to define their own competitive advantage. It can be a lunch with the potential teammates right after the panel interview or a happy hour gathering promoting teamwork. Interviews are no longer point-to-point contacts, the contact has stretched both horizontally and vertically. The other day I heard of a Corporate Head of Asia having coffee with a 1 PQE Associate the other day just to give a ‘feel’ of how it is like working for him. Does this seem like overkill?

What Should We Do?

For recruiters, time is money. Dropouts are the biggest waste of time and we don’t like it.

In an upmarket like now, there are a lot more speculative candidates in the market, the ones who are just looking and simply want to know how much they are worth. Most recruiters, including myself, are not in the business of fulfilling curiosities. We are here to fill roles and vacancies. With that being said, an excellent way of avoiding dropouts is to be selective with who you work with.

Ask them the difficult questions from the beginning and repeat those questions every now and then. Do everything to make sure that they are truly motivated to move, a candidate without motivation is a placement without a fee.

And yes, just like our clients, we have to get personal with our candidates too. Getting to know them, if you cannot place them in the short run doesn’t imply you cannot place them in the long run. A truly brilliant consultant should have the diplomatic courage to buy his/her dropout candidate dinner and congratulate him/her on his/her new role with a smile.

If all the recruiters are doing the right things, maybe one day, the market can be recruiters driven! Until that day, keep it up!



Learn more about the legal market by reaching out to our team at info@cml.ky today for a confidential conversation.