The Remarkable Power of LinkedIn for Hiring Legal Professionals

If you haven’t tried LinkedIn to bring on a critical hire for your firm, you’re missing out.  Recruiting without this powerful professional social channel is like playing tennis with the racket in your mouth:  You’re making things way too hard, and you’re going to end up with a headache.
LinkedIn is an overwhelmingly productive recruiting tool.  If you’re having problem finding qualified candidates, hop on this professional social network and you might be in luck.
When getting started, your first essential step is putting together a well-written job posting. You can use the power of LinkedIn, but if your position and firm comes off as unappealing, you’ll get nowhere.  The ins and outs of a properly written job posting is beyond the scope of the article, but to highlight some critical points:
DO: Make sure the posting addresses the perspective and desires of your target audience. It shouldn’t be a big boring drone-fest about the position.
DO: Say a little bit about your firm, and clearly explain roles and responsibilities.
DON’T:  Provide a salary range.
DO: Make sure you have all of your bullets and formatting all nice and neat.  Take some time to ensure this, as copying and pasting from Word can result in some visual wonkiness.  If you post a poorly formatted job posting, don’t expect quality candidates.
Once you have your position ready to go, set up your job by clicking on “Jobs” from the main LinkedIn navigation.  Then click “Post a Job.”

Next, select the industries and other basic meta-information about the position.

Paste your position into the Job Description box as well as the most positive spin you can possibly muster about your firm in the Company Description.
Note that posting a job on LinkedIn can cost $200.  In my opinion, this is nominal, especially when weighed against hiring a recruiter.  If you’re blanching at $200 for a grade-A job posting, I feel compelled to warn you not to be penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Additionally, I recommend funding your ad so that it is displayed prominently.  Post your job on a Friday as many people peruse new jobs on the weekend. Also, spend an extra $50 or $100 through LinkedIn to bump your ad to the top of the listings.
If your experience is anything like mine, your biggest problem is going to be finding the time to sift through all of the quality applicants.