NEWS / 7
S O U T H C A R O L I N A L A W Y E R S W E E K LY I Novem ber 8, 2021
JOB MARKET / Recruiters say they’ve never seen it so busy C o nt inu e d f r o m 1 ►
Rosario Canales, the firm’s digital marketing specialist, said that clients are bouncing back from a disappointing 2020 often through creative means. “To stay competitive a lot of employers have broadened their staffing efforts to seek talent in other regions, especially for remote roles,” Canales said. “Legal departments use legal contractors/consultants in order to meet their teams’ increasing demands.” Green said that lawyers with three to five years of experience in litigation, real estate, family law, trust and estates, intellectual property, business, and employment law are at the top of her clients’ wish lists.
Remote possibilities
The legal field was dramatically— possibly permanently—changed by a pandemic that forced it to adapt to new ways of doing business. Remote work was instituted out of necessity but it’s now likely here to stay and has created for many a new perspective on lawyering, cultivating a desire for greater work/life balance and altering goals. Another upshot of the rise in remote work is that the market for legal talent is increasingly national. And recruiters in many parts of the country are seeing unusually tight job markets like what’s being seen in the Carolinas.
C o nt inu e d f r o m 6 ►
Murdaugh, 53, remains in the Richland County jail without bond after being charged with stealing nearly $3 million in insurance payments meant for the sons of his housekeeper, who died in a 2018 fall in his home. His legal team did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the latest ruling. A judge handling the Murdaugh criminal cases last month asked for a report on his mental state before considering whether to set bond. A date for a hearing has not been set. While the criminal investigations into Murdaugh continue—he also has been charged with trying to arrange his own death so his surviving son could get a $10 million life insurance policy—the civil lawsuits against him are also piling up. Murdaugh faces at least six lawsuits seeking money as damages, from claims over the 2019 fatal boat crash to allegations he stole accidental death insurance settlements meant for his housekeeper’s sons and money from his family’s centuryold law firm to his own brother saying Murdaugh owes him $46,500 on $90,000 loaned in September in part to get Murdaugh into drug rehab. Hall’s latest decision deals only with the lawsuit from the family of 19-year-old Mallory Beach. She died after Murdaugh’s boat hit a Beaufort County bridge in February 2019 and her body was found seven days later. Prosecutors say Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat recklessly while intoxicated and charges against him were dropped after he and his mother were killed at the family’s Colleton County home in June. Lawyers in two other lawsuits against Alex Murdaugh filed similar
“Employees want to feel equal and appreciated. I’ve had candidates that left their roles because they never felt acknowledged despite the years they put into the firms.” Nikki Green, founder of Ave Staffing in Raleigh, North Carolina
“In the fall of 2020, we started an amazing uptick in searches, and it’s been increasing every month,” said a recruiter who heads the in-house counsel recruiting division at Major, Lindsey & Africa in Boston. “I know we have never seen it this busy.” While firms and companies look to hire the perfect candidate, candidates are looking to join the perfect firm or company. That sometimes means landing the position with the highest salary or most prestige, but not always. So, while a hefty paycheck is generally a powerful incentive, some attorneys have different priorities when choosing whether to join a new law firm. “Many firms have seen an increase in demand for flexible work schedules and remote work options,” Green said. Lawyering from afar is not ideal from everyone’s perspective, but Canales said that employers should be
motions asking to have the independent lawyers review and catalog all of Murdaugh’s assets and approve whether he can spend money. They will get part of any legal settlements or judgments against Murdaugh in the cases they are involved. Those cases involve a man on the boat who said the Murdaugh family tried to falsely pin him as the boat’s driver along with the family of Murdaugh’s late housekeeper Gloria Satterfield. The Murdaughs said she died after a fall in the family’s home in 2018. Murdaugh has been charged with pocketing nearly $3 million worth of insurance settlements that was supposed to go to Satterfield’s estate. Prosecutors have accused Murdaugh of illegally diverting the money to his accounts. They said he then paid off a $100,000 credit card bill, transferred more than $300,000 to his father and $735,000 to himself. “He’s living pretty well for someone with no assets. He has a crisis manager,” Tinsley said at the hearing. Last week, at least two more lawsuits were filed against Murdaugh looking to collect debts. His old PMPED Law Firm sued, saying they loaned him $470,000 in 2021 and has not been paid back. The law firm has a separate suit against Murdaugh seeking money they said he stole from them. That suit didn’t specify any amount, but legal papers have suggested it is in the millions. Also Randolph Murdaugh IV sued his brother, saying $90,000 he loaned before his arrest to help his brother make payroll and after the arrest for rehab has not been paid back minus a $43,500 tractor and rotary cutter that court papers said were given to the brother after Alex Murdaugh first tried to sell it.
aware that it is an attractive perk being offered by competitors. “Currently the work schedule most preferred by professionals is two days in the office and three days remote,” Canales said. “Offering flexibility can potentially attract better talent for open positions and boost retention.”
What works now
Some firms and companies have reported less-than-overwhelming success in hiring ideal candidates, often finding them unavailable or unqualified. But others say that while outstanding talent doesn’t always fall into their laps, they have managed to do quite well recently. “We attribute it to targeted investment of significant time and intention to diversity and inclusion efforts and expanding where we’re going to meet candidates from our old standard operating procedures, and we’re finding that there are a
lot of talented lawyers out there,” said Angela Craddock, a shareholder with Young Moore in Raleigh and chair of the firm’s recruiting and diversity and inclusion committees. Craddock said that younger lawyers have been a primary target based on the firm’s current needs, and that while the firm has focused its efforts on recent law school graduates and lawyers fresh from clerkships, it has also managed to land some “really talented laterals.” “I believe we’ve hired attorneys across every single practice area we have,” Craddock said. “The law is busy right now.” Sometimes one has to cast a wide net to catch the right fish. Craddock said that hiring success means being open to more ideas and methods, including keeping in contact with law schools, intentionally networking, prominently posting job listings, participating in jobs fairs, and using headhunters or recruiting firms to help for certain hires—the idea is to be as expansive as possible. In her years of recruiting, Green said that one thing has proven universal for employees of any industry, including the law: They do not enjoy robotic work environments. “Employees want to feel equal and appreciated,” Green said. “I’ve had candidates that left their roles because they never felt acknowledged despite the years they put into the firms.” Pat Murphy contributed to this story.
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