Private Practice

In 2001, as US firms started to establish themselves in London, the Magic Circle and other top law firms began to lose out on the best candidates, specifically at the mid-level point. We entered the market, realising that firms needed to differentiate themselves to fulfil their growth plans and compete effectively. Where they had been relying on job ads, what they really needed was a trusted recruitment partner who could actively headhunt the best talent on the market. We mapped the market, built an extensive database, and launched our unique MarketWatch service, enabling us to quickly locate candidates that match any set criteria.

Almost 20 years later, the market is much tougher. There are more recruitment agencies in the sector, as well as in-house recruiters sourcing talent, and, coupled with avenues such as LinkedIn, it can be harder for our clients to find a quality recruitment partner. There are also new US firms hiring aggressively, which has seen many London firms forced to increase salaries to attract and retain talent. Candidates therefore have countless options and often multiple job offers, so they can afford to be choosy in today’s career culture of frequent job moves.

We have developed our original consultative approach to client relationships and have become a recognised brand in the London legal space, helping numerous firms move forward with the right people. These long-term partnerships with clients mean increased contact and added value for them, in terms of better market insight, regular salary surveys and even speculative approaches from stellar candidates. Two decades on, it is as rewarding as ever to guide, advise and find a legal candidate their dream job.

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

​Key features:

• We source and secure high calibre talent using innovative, customised search methods

• On-off flexibility to suit your needs

• We can deliver a “full package” from resourcing high-quality candidate to contactor care and compliance

• Ongoing brand awareness campaigns via our headhunting schemes

• Weekly or bi-weekly meetings to discuss progress, candidates, and feedback

Why you’ll love it:

• We can accommodate the differing needs of your business over time

• Long term support and advice on your talent management strategy

• Easier to compare the quality of candidates across the market, so you can make more informed decisions

• Option to request a search for a specific role or to be kept regularly informed of relevant people becoming available in your market

• No commitment to hire unless you really like a candidate

Key features:

• Fully bespoke from a location, skill set and seniority perspective

• Our dedicated research function will provide lists of active and passive candidate communities within a specific market

• We can also provide current market trends, competitor analysis and brand perception surveys

• Proactive and organic for quick access and use

Why you’ll love it:

• Better awareness of the candidate pools available in your market

• Increased awareness of your employer brand to help you stand out from the crowd

• Benchmark your talent strategy against the most effective in the market

• Successfully headhunt direct competition to your business

• Arms you with the information you need to make a business case on your talent requirements

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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

The challenge:

Our client, an international law firm, was struggling to fill a particularly difficult role – they were not receiving the quality level of applicants they required. Together, we decided they needed to raise their employer brand profile to reach as large an audience as possible. The downside of doing this would be risking unmanageable numbers of responses, so we were engaged to manage the process and screen the applicants before interviews.

Our solution:

We talked at length with the client about the demographic they were looking to attract, which informed the decision as to where we would advertise the role. We also evaluated previous Hydrogen campaign strategies to help decide which direction would be most effective. We then worked with our in-house marketing team to develop a series of glossy, impactful adverts that reflected the client’s brand.

The client was able to take advantage of our preferential rates and we combined the advertising with a proactive headhunt search. All candidates were fully screened by us before interview to make the recruitment process as smooth as possible.

The outcome:

• We filed the role ahead of schedule

• We built a pipeline of potential candidates for the future.

• The client employed this method several times going forward with tricky roles.

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The challenge:

Our client, a Magic Circle firm, was looking for a Senior Associate or Counsel in Projects/Project Finance to replace someone after 10 years’ service who had a well embedded Middle East practice. After getting nowhere with a number of suppliers, Hydrogen was asked to undertake a mapping project to target all lawyers at 4-10 PQE in the Middle East region at the top international firms with Projects/Project Finance or general banking with projects experience.

Our solution:

With a database of over 111,000 lawyers and over 12 years’ experience in the Middle East, our digital research team map over 12,000 candidates each year. Able to provide resourcing at senior consultant, researcher and digital researcher level, we agreed a list of target firms and mapped the entire market within two days, detailing how many relevant lawyers at each level of PQE were in the region. This meant the firm could choose where to headhunt and where they may need to be more flexible.

The outcome:

• The firm was able to target specific individuals they wanted to meet, and we were able to provide them with immediate feedback on candidate interest.

• They realised that the best individual may not be in the UAE, so we also utilised our networks from the UK, Europe and Asia.

• The client secured the right candidate that was identified via our mapping project.

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Our client is a top international law firm and a member of the UK’s Magic Circle of leading law firms. We have worked closely with them for over 17 years and have placed over 100 lawyers across their many global locations.

Due to our long-standing relationship, our team understands their unique employer brand and the types of individuals they look to hire.

The challenge:

We were invited to pitch for a large-scale hiring project in their Banking team. They were looking for candidates with 1 – 3 PQE, with a strong experience in Australia or New Zealand markets. Crucially, we also needed to ensure the candidates would be a good cultural fit for this firm and could work well together as a team.

We put forward an innovative and energetic proposal that gave the client confidence in our ability to deliver and they decided to partner with us.

Our solution:

Our proposal was a five-stage approach running over the course of five weeks. First, we mapped the market to identify 400 relevant candidates. We ran a high-profile branded advertising campaign, then moved into a headhunting phase, contacting every candidate in under three weeks. In week four, we flew to Australia to conduct initial interviews, then finally presented the partners with a shortlist as scheduled.

The outcome:

• We completed the hiring project making 10 successful placements within 8 weeks.

• The client was very pleased with the results, meeting a number of high-calibre candidates throughout this project.

• Despite the tight timescale and challenges with the time difference, a dedicated project team of six specialists made sure it ran smoothly.

"Our experience of working with Hydrogen for our recent Australia and New Zealand recruitment campaign was nothing short of fantastic. They worked tirelessly for us throughout the course of the project and represented us with energy and enthusiasm at all stages. We are delighted with the talent they’ve introduced to our network and the relationships we’ve developed with them as a result of this campaign!"

HR Manager at Magic Circle firm

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