LEXLOONG is honored to have Zhang Yiqun, a previous lawyer successfully turned to legal headhunter, participate in our "LEXLOONG Interview" column. In this interview, Ms. Zhang Yiqun has many years of experience in law firms and legal headhunting, and in this interview, she will share with us her unique insights on various aspects of the legal headhunting industry, as well as the development trends and challenges of the legal industry. Let's have an in-depth understanding of Ms. Zhang Yiqun's career sharing on lawyers' career changes, and her valuable advice for career advancement.
01 Personal background
Lexloong: Can you briefly tell us about your educational background and your experience at Peking University Law School?
Zhang: I graduated from Peking University Law School in 2009, and it has been 15 years since I graduated.
02 Career selection and sharing
Lexloong: Why did you choose to transition from a lawyer to a legal headhunter?
Zhang: The first reason is that being a lawyer is very tiring. And I didn't change careers directly from a lawyer to a legal headhunter, in the middle time I also worked as a BD in a law firm, which is the person in charge of marketing in the law firm. The main work of the law firm's marketing is two parts: first is writing bidding documents, bidding and tendering. Part of the tender will involve our service capabilities, previous representative cases, and whether it is relevant to the case we want to take. 2. Use our communication skills in the process of quoting.
In my BD marketing work, I was responsible for writing bidding documents, take part in communicating quotations, and helping the firm package cases to enhance its image. Later, I started my own business and introduced this part of the business to domestic law firms, especially team-based law firms. In the course of the partnership, it was found that law firms often needed consulting and recruitment support when developing new business areas, and the payment for headhunting services was clear and straightforward. As a result, I gradually transitioned to focus on headhunting and provide marketing and business development coaching as an additional service. The marketing work of a law firm is different from marketing in the traditional sense, it pays more attention to professionalism, and needs to understand the industry rules and the characteristics of the service object.
Lexloong: What do you think is the biggest difference between a headhunter and a lawyer?
Zhang: In fact, they are all professional services in nature.
If lawyers are divided into litigation lawyers and non-litigation lawyers, headhunters may be very similar to litigation lawyers, both are result-oriented. The headhunter fee model is a pure risk agency, that is, if he does not successfully find a candidate, he does not succeed in hiring, or before the probationary period, the guarantee period, or if he leaves soon, the headhunter will not receive payment. That is, no matter how much preparation work is done in the early stage, if the final result is not good, there will be no particularly good returns.
However, non-litigation lawyers are different, non-litigation lawyers take results and details as a precondition for fees, for example, a large M&A case, is staged, and a stage of fees can be charged after completing one stage.
It has to say there is no particular difference between a headhunter and a lawyer, for me it seems to be about the same. Because of the platform I work on, almost all of us are studying law, first of all, my company only works on legal headhunters, basically just law firms and legal affairs. And then we had about five or six consultants, and apart from one or two colleagues, basically half of them were lawyers, and they were all lawyers in the red circle or outside the project station.
So, are there any big differences between the two? Obviously not， otherwise, we wouldn't have made such a smooth transition. I think it's all service industries, and there's no big difference.
03 Legal headhunting job content
Lexloong: Can you describe your daily work as a legal headhunter?
Zhang: I think the essence of headhunting is actually sales, and what I sell is job information and market information. Because of the business, the customer, these are not timely needs. For example, if a law firm wants to recruit people, it will first ask us what the needs of the red circle firm are, how their team structure is established, and everyone will have the demand for market information. Therefore, a very important part of our job is to understand the market demand, and we need to communicate and chat with lawyers, partners, HR, and office managers to understand everyone's needs and ideas.
As far as we are concerned, we only work for the legal industry, which is very vertical and niche, and our daily work is basically to "accumulate candidates", communicate with different lawyers, and at the same time need to communicate with clients. I know that there are some more traditional and comprehensive headhunters who may require new headhunters to make as many calls a day, such as 10 or 20 clients, which is a performance requirement. The reason is because they have a very powerful database with so many people's information in this database, and you can just scroll around and update them every day. But we are a special headhunting company, our company recruits consultants who basically have some work experience, plus most of them are lawyers who change careers, so there is no need to start from scratch, and the circle of friends will ask about the needs of the position.
Lexloong: What is your work model? How do you balance the needs of clients and candidates?
Zhang: The needs of our customers come first. We are the platform for candidates to be onboarded, policies and companies give us money, we are obligated to serve our customers and put the needs of our customers first. When we communicate with candidates, some candidates will think that it is your obligation to find them a job, but we are not like that. Of course, we will have a variety of ways to communicate with the candidate, communicate effectively and skillfully, and convey the information to both parties.
04 Career experience sharing
Lexloong: What significant changes have you been exposed to since you started working in the headhunting industry?
Zhang: The friends and people I come into contact with are still lawyers, which is no different from before, but the perspective will be different. I don't have to focus on my profession anymore, but more as a provider of emotional value, listening to the worries of my partners and providing some advisory advice.
When communicating with candidates, I listen more to their various needs, including career development, remuneration package, working environment and opportunities, life balance, and role change. These demands reflect the different needs and expectations of candidates in their career paths, and they are also issues that we need to focus on and address in the recruitment and retention process.
For candidates moving from lawyer to in-house counsel, they may face discomfort from changing roles in business organizations. In in-house legal roles, they deal with non-legal people and take on the responsibility of generating revenue for the firm.
So the people I interact with have not changed, but the content of the conversation has changed. Because if I wasn't a headhunter, they wouldn't talk to me about these things.
I still maintain the work rhythm when I was a lawyer, and the current work rhythm is "lying" for a lawyer, but it is a very serious headhunter for a headhunter. Headhunters also give me a lot of flexibility, I can adjust my working hours according to the time difference of the candidates, I don't have to work on shifts, and sometimes I can work from home or go out to meet people.
Lexloong: How have these changes positively impacted your career and personal growth?
Zhang: Have more fun and have more free time. For me, I've been in the legal industry for fourteen or fifteen years now, and it's unlikely that I'll leave the industry, but I'm still in the industry. I am now freer in mind and time, my income is not bad, and more importantly, I can use all the resources I have accumulated before.
Lexloong: How has your experience at Big Law helped you as a legal headhunter?
Zhang: Most of our platform are consultants with experience in law firms, and now we are in frequent contact with lawyers to understand their work content and preferences, and more importantly, we use a headhunter communication method that understands the preferences of lawyers, because I was also a candidate. Different from some friends who use traditional headhunting methods, our advantages are: 1. Understand the communication methods that lawyers like. 2. We will not force lawyers to change jobs and respect their choices.
In fact, lawyers are inherently risk-averse, and changing jobs means increasing risk for them. Traditional UK law firm partners tend to serve the same law firm for life, while US law firms are more "wolf-like" and partner changes jobs more frequently, which also drives the activity of clients and the market.
Lawyers have their own preferences and judgments about the choice of law firms, and when recommending law firms for them, we will fully understand their needs and expectations and provide appropriate advice. When pushing lawyers to change jobs, we fully trust their judgment and respect their choice. If the lawyer thinks that the risk of changing jobs is too high and chooses not to change jobs or take the offer, we will respect their decision and not force it.
05 Insights into the development of the legal industry
Lexloong: How do you see the current trends and challenges in the legal industry?
Zhang: I think the question is mainly about what is everyone's own perspective. If you only focus on the red circle and the top boutique and foreign firms, you may feel the severity of the market. These firms typically handle foreign-related, large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and the most complex commercial litigation, but in the current economic climate, the number of such cases is limited. The legal industry, as the end of the economic chain, may be less affected initially when the economy is bad, and even generate good revenue in certain periods, such as 2021, due to the outbreak of litigation and IPO boom. However, as the real economy begins to recover, the legal industry is lagging behind, with unclear new growth points, fierce competition, and the failure to adjust the fee model in time to adapt to changes in clients' ability to pay. Some lawyers and partners are too focused on the business at hand and lack a keen insight into market changes. At the same time, the law firm failed to fully foresee changes in clients' ability to pay when providing services, resulting in difficulties in collecting payments when clients' funds were tight.
However, if we broaden our horizons to large-scale law firms such as Yingke and Jingshi, as well as platforms that focus on individual legal services, we will find that these areas have not been greatly affected, and even show flexibility and economic vitality in some aspects. And some independent partners and lawyers are also doing well in second-tier cities, they have a high social status, and they can get good development.
The current state of the legal profession needs to be viewed on two levels. Tier-1 cities and Tier-1 law firms do face challenges, but the vast majority of people don't necessarily have to do their best business in these locations or law firms. If you broaden your horizons, there are still plenty of opportunities. Of course, this also requires graduates and practitioners to adjust their mentality, not to be obsessed with excessive expectations, but to choose a development path that suits them according to the actual situation.
Lexloong: Do you think the demand for talent in the legal market is currently decreasing? Why?
Zhang: The demand for lawyers in red circle, foreign-funded and boutique firms is small and demanding, and the recruitment process is slow. They prefer two types of people: 1. Newcomers with potential, such as recent college graduates. 2. Partners with their own business. Senior lawyers, on the other hand, are less urgently needed because of the backward compatibility of partners and the rapid growth and upward compatibility of middle-level lawyers, especially those who only handle cases but are not good at business development.
On the whole, the demand for lawyers has not decreased, but the demand structure has changed. The demand in the PVC capital market has almost stagnated, but the demand in the fields of litigation compliance, antitrust, digital compliance, financial banking and overseas legal services is still growing, or even stronger. Team stability in these areas may be affected by factors such as lawyer turnover, but the overall demand remains. At the same time, some well-known large-scale law firms can achieve scale expansion without traditional recruitment methods, so the market demand is still very strong.
Lexloong: Which area of the legal industry do you think has better job prospects right now? Why?
Zhang: Be sure to choose your favorite field, love can last a long time. Being a lawyer is tiring and stressful, and if you don't choose what you like, there is a high chance that you will not be able to persevere and even have mental health problems. Therefore, it is recommended that law students do more internships to gain experience and see what they like to work in.
06 Insights into the legal executive search industry
Lexloong: How do you see the future of legal headhunting? What are the opportunities and challenges?
Zhang: I think general headhunting will definitely be like all industries, and some of them will be replaced by technology. However, legal headhunting is more special, and we need to judge the candidate, such as his communication ability, various soft comprehensive strength, etc., so this judgment is difficult to replace. At present, AI is obviously still in a state of learning, what exactly does a learning lawyer do? How to match our position, so from this point of view, the development of the legal headhunting industry is still very good.
Lexloong: How do you think the legal search industry should adapt to the changes in the legal industry?
Zhang: One of the most significant changes in the legal profession is that people have become more money-sensitive, mainly because of the economic environment, which has led to a general perception of "getting poorer". In response to this change, some friends have adopted an innovative approach to fees, which link the fees to the income generated by the recommended partners. Specifically, they charge a small down payment and then charge follow-up fees in proportion to the partner's revenue generated during the first year of the new platform. This extends the entire billing period and ensures that the law firm pays most of its fees after earning money. It can be seen as a " stick together in difficulty " strategy, i.e., only when the partner is successful and brings income to the law firm, can the partner business reap the corresponding benefits. This strategy is somewhat similar to the partnership between an early-stage BVC and a super-startup, emphasizing the idea of shared risk and shared benefits for both parties. In this way, both parties may be less sensitive to money, as the benefits are based on successful co-creation and sharing.
07 What else would you like to share with the younger generations?
Lexloong: How should young lawyers improve themselves to adapt to the changing legal market?
Zhang: Improve mental health, stress resistance, emotional value, self-regulation, no internal friction, and clear self-awareness.
Lexloong: As a headhunter, what kind of talent do you usually choose?
Zhang: It mainly depends on the needs of customers. Hard power: graduation school, examination certificate, and soft power: communication ability, expression ability, ability to work under pressure, self-awareness, etc. Candidates need to figure out their career plan, which is about 3 to 5 years, and 10 years is too long, and they need to have a clear understanding and plan for themselves.
Thank you again Ms. Zhang Yiqun for your valuable sharing, more professional sharing in the legal industry will continue to be launched!
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