Europe

With over 20 years’ experience in delivering top legal talent to companies and law firms, we have witnessed increasing demand from our clients to expand into new locations in Europe. Top legal professionals with exceptional training and exposure to international markets are hard to find in the local market, even for locally based agencies. Our global network of over 160,000 contacts includes local lawyers, UK talent living abroad, and global talent looking for a relocation and this enables us to significantly expand the talent pool for our clients with requirements in difficult locations.

As more international firms have increased their European presence in recent years, and Brexit has moved some legal focus away from the UK, the Private Practice market has become much more competitive for our clients, who need to focus on their brands to attract top talent. At the same time, many companies have brought their legal expenses in-house, resulting in our clients needing to differentiate themselves as there are so many more opportunities in that space.

Our consultative, close partnerships with our clients allow us to understand their businesses inside out and enable us to push the strongest message about them to the market. The same approach with our candidates means that we have their goals, motivating factors and career aspirations at heart. Combining the two results in highly skilled, dynamic lawyers getting the very best opportunities with our clients, who in turn can achieve their growth or project plans by securing the best talent.

Combining the strength of your brand and the reach of our networks, this solution enables you to tap into a wider candidate pool.

Our in-house design studio develops bespoke co-branded advertising campaigns to raise awareness of your search within the right networks. These campaigns, which can consist of individual adverts or an end-to-end multi-media campaign across several weeks, attract valuable and hard-to-find talent.

Advertising alone cannot be relied upon to provide the best shortlist of candidates. We use a dual-sourcing approach that combines advertising with headhunting to ensure full coverage of the market and increase our chance of securing the best candidates.

We'll run an advertising campaign and screen all applicants, whilst headhunting in the background. All relevant candidates who respond to advertising or who are generated through headhunting will be invited to meet our experienced consultants to discuss the role in more detail. We’ll assess their commitment to the role and screen them against specific criteria, both in terms of experience and personality.

Key features:

• Dedicated marketing expertise to represent your brand in a consistent and impactful way

• Adverts will feature across multiple platforms including relevant Job Boards, LinkedIn, Email and other social media platforms

• Engage with passive candidates who are keen to understand more about the opportunity

• Fully vetted shortlist of the most suitable candidates

• Flexible pricing solutions to meet your needs

Why you’ll love it:

• Tap into a wider talent pool across multiple marketing channels

• Raise your brand profile in the market

• Increase job response rates with the right candidates

• Adds weighting to the overall search campaign, to help you fill roles much faster

• Flexible pricing: more cost-effective than advertising your own roles

Hydrogen is appointed as the sole agent on a particular role, or instruction on a contingency basis. Ideal for a business wanting to conduct discreet and confidential searches without candidates being approached multiple times by agencies.

Key features:

• One specialist point of contact at Hydrogen

• Using innovative, customised search methods, we source and secure the market’s best talent

• Searches conducted by a consultant and dedicated research team, to ensure a thorough search and all relevant candidates in the market are spoken to

• Weekly updates on the search

• Flexible rates depending on the role requirements

Why you’ll love it:

• Save time having to manage different agencies and numerous points of contact

• More control over your brand message in the market as candidates don’t get approached multiple times for the same role

• Receive better quality candidates for the role, as we’re not simply in a race to find the best people, which is often detrimental to the thoroughness and quality of a search

• More cost effective than a non-exclusive solution

The best solution for hiring talent into your business quickly and effectively. We take full responsibility for the entire search – our approach is targeted and specific, plus we meet and screen all prospective candidates for cultural fit before considering an introduction.

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Key features:

• You have one specialist point of contact at Hydrogen

• Using innovative, customised search methods, we source and secure the market’s best talent

• Searches conducted by a consultant and dedicated research team, to ensure a thorough search and all relevant candidates in the market are spoken to

• Weekly updates on your search

• Option to conduct market mapping and report on your brand perception in the market

• Staggered pricing solutions, in line with different hiring phases

Why you’ll love it:

• You gain preferred access to the best pools of active and passive candidates in your market

• Working exclusively with us, we will control your message in the market and promote your brand successfully

• We’ll work to tighter deadlines due to the increased resources that can be committed to the search

• Ability to spread the cost across a number of weeks or months

We offer a customised strategic staffing solution that identifies the right candidates for your permanent recruitment needs.

By taking the time to understand your unique company culture, ambitions and needs we can ensure that we can find the best talent for your business. We use innovative, customised search methods and off-grid insights, to build engaged candidate pools, establishing long-term relationships. Our approach to recruitment also helps protect and enhance your brand, as we go to market as your ambassador, promoting you as the employer of choice.

Key features:

• Full brief to understand your requirements

• Using our market leading CRM and search tools across multiple platforms, we tailor our packages to suit our clients and reach talent that other agencies cannot

• Experienced delivery teams and a dedicated account manager to provide a single point of contact

• Regular review meetings ensuring two-way communication

Why you’ll love it:

• We take a consulting approach to ensure we are attracting the right talent and you are not missing out to competitors

• Access to best-in-class talent – not just those who are actively looking

• One point of contact for your talent needs – no need to use different agencies for different levels or roles

• We’ll share our unique insights and market trends to shape your talent strategy

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The challenge:

Our client needed to make a critical hire into their in-house Legal team and wanted to use the opportunity to showcase their brand in the relevant markets for future hires too. They wanted to produce a high-impact, exciting advertising campaign to attract the best, most suitable candidates in the market, but had neither the time nor resources. They were also concerned about the expense of direct advertising with no guarantee of success given their lack of targeted network.

Our solution:

As part of an exclusive mandate agreeing specific outcomes and deliverables, we worked with the client to hone the message before our in-house marketing team produced an eye-catching campaign, highlighting the key aspects of the vacancy. We targeted the advertising at a specific talent pool, knowing that we have a solid track record with this type of campaign with a highly engaged following.

The outcome:

• The client interviewed our entire shortlist such was the calibre and hired one candidate.

• We saved the client a significant amount of time and money by including the campaign in the mandate and producing it in-house.

• Additionally, the campaign boosted our client’s exposure in the target space and resulted in a higher level of engagement with the top talent in their area.

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The challenge:

A marketing agency, associated with a sports governing body based in Switzerland, was looking for a UK qualified lawyer with international experience. Sports experience was also desired, but extremely difficult to find, even in the wider market.

Our solution:

Our dedicated Research team mapped the market and our in-house marketing team produced a glossy branded advert to attract high calibre talent. We also tapped into our global candidate network in order to present a shortlist of suitable candidates.

One of those candidates was a UK trainee we had helped to relocate to APAC upon qualification. After a few successful years in Singapore, the individual was looking to relocate back to Europe. Because we had a longstanding relationship with the candidate, forged over many years, we knew they would make a great addition to the team.

The outcome:

• Even though the candidate lacked sports experience, the client was delighted to bring them onboard and upskill them internally instead.

• We successfully relocated the same UK trainee from Singapore to Switzerland.

• The client was extremely happy with our process, speed and quality of delivery.

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The challenge:

A long-term client of our London In-house team engaged us to find a Senior Lawyer in Luxembourg. This was our first point of entry into the Luxembourg market, and as such, we did not have an established legal network in this part of the world.

Our solution:

We were asked to deliver a shortlist in a very short timeframe. With the expertise of our legal research team, we were able to map the market for the required skillset and deliver a shortlist of 10 suitable candidates within three days. Due to the strength of our brand in the international legal market, we were able to engage with the top talent and educate them about our client and the opportunity available.

The outcome:

• 90% of this shortlist were invited for the first round of interviews.

• The position was filled within a month.

• The client was extremely happy with our process, speed and quality of delivery.

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