Securing top talent: your guide to successful legal locum recruitment

In the UK’s public sector, legal services play a pivotal role in ensuring that government bodies, local authorities and public institutions operate within the law. However, the demand for legal expertise in this sector often fluctuates, being highly responsive to wider market changes such as political and/or societal shifts.

As a result, securing top legal talent is essential to ensure continuity, efficiency, and excellence in service delivery. With budget constraints and increasing demands on public services, locum legal professionals have become invaluable team members.

In this guide, we aim to provide you with the insights and strategies needed to successfully attract and recruit skilled locum legal professionals.

The current market and the importance of locum legal recruitment

The public sector is experiencing a significant shift due to budget cuts, policy changes, and evolving public expectations. This has created an environment where the need for flexible, skilled legal professionals is vital.

Locum recruitment offers an essential solution by providing access to highly qualified legal experts on a temporary basis, ensuring that public sector organisations can maintain high standards and service continuity, and manage spikes in demand, all without long-term commitments.

The demand for skilled locum professionals

There is a growing demand for skilled locum legal professionals in the public sector. These professionals bring specialised knowledge, adaptability, and the ability to handle a variety of legal challenges efficiently. From handling temporary staff shortages to managing high-volume projects, locum professionals ensure that legal departments remain functional and responsive.

Benefits locums bring to businesses

The strategic hiring of legal locum professionals has proved a vital tool for organisations wanting to fill a skills gap temporarily; this might be due to sickness, extended holidays, maternity leave or an excess of work due to sudden case influx or a large-scale project. There are many reasons why clients require locum support to take on a range of responsibilities, depending entirely on their needs.

 Here are some of the key benefits of incorporating locum professionals into your legal team:

• Flexibility: Legal workloads can be unpredictable, with sudden surges due to legislative changes, unforeseen cases, or project demands. Hiring a locum provides the flexibility to scale your team up or down as needed, ensuring that your organisation can respond appropriately to varying workloads without the long-term commitment of permanent hires.
• Expertise: Legal locums have often had a broad range of exposure to different legal issues and sectors. You may also be able to look for an individual that has niche knowledge that is not readily available within your existing team. Engaging a locum allows your organisation, and team, to tap into this knowledge and benefit from it.
• Recruitment speed and minimal training: In the public sector, the process of hiring permanent members of staff can take several months, from budget approval to start date. Hiring a locum can help ease the workload for the team during the recruitment period. Experienced locums are accustomed to stepping into new roles and environments with minimal onboarding time. Their ability to quickly adjust and start contributing means that your organisation benefits from their expertise almost immediately, reducing downtime and maintaining productivity.

Identifying necessary skills, experience, and qualifications

As an employer, it’s crucial to clearly define the skills, experience, and qualifications required for any role, but particularly a locum role where a candidate may have less time to integrate into your team. This involves:

• Job description: Clearly outlining the primary duties and responsibilities the locum will be expected to perform. This helps candidates to understand the scope of the role and ensures a successful candidate is well-prepared to meet the organisation’s needs. Outline what specific legal expertise is needed and what the caseload looks like.
• Experience level: Determining the level of experience required, such as previous work in similar public sector roles or specific legal fields. This will depend entirely on the complexity of the tasks and the level of autonomy expected from the locum. For example, you may require someone with several years of post-qualified experience (PQE) so that they can handle complex cases or projects with minimal supervision.
• Qualifications: Ensuring the candidate has the necessary legal qualifications and any additional certifications relevant to the role.

Determining duration and scope

When hiring a legal locum, one of the most crucial aspects to consider is the duration and scope of the assignment. Clearly defining these parameters not only helps to find the right candidate, but also ensures that both your organisation and the locum professional have aligned expectations.

There are a number of factors you need to consider, but ultimately, the duration and scope of a locum position will vary depending on the need or project:

• Covering absences: How long do you anticipate the role lasting? Is there scope for extension?
• Project-based: For specific projects, when is it due to start and what is the anticipated timescale?
• Flexible terms: Is there potential for extensions or changes based on project demands or organisational needs?

 Conducting interviews for locum candidates

When interviewing locum candidates, it’s important to not only assess whether they have the necessary skills and experience, but also that they fit in well with the organisation’s culture and specific needs. Given the temporary nature of legal locum roles, it’s essential to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the interview process.

Keep in mind the locum market can move very quickly, therefore in order to the get best candidate, it is crucial to arrange interviews as soon as possible.

You can focus on:

• Relevant experience: Assess their previous work in similar roles and sectors, prioritise questions that explore these aspects, ask about previous cases or projects they’ve handled that are similar to the work they will be doing within your organisation. This helps to gauge their depth of knowledge, technical skills and ability to get on with the assignment.
• Adaptability: Evaluate their ability to quickly integrate into new environments and handle diverse legal issues, to see how they can start contributing immediately. You could ask them about how they have understood a new system or working with a new team.
• Understanding availability and commitment: It is important to make sure their availability is also in line with the needs and requirements of the role. Understanding when they can start with you is an essential question to ask. Additionally, it is important to understand a candidate’s commitment to the role. You can ask them why they are interested in the role and working for the organisation. Digging deeper will ensure that both parties are aligned leading to a very successful placement.
• Sell the role: While it’s important to set clear expectations, it is equally as important to avoid putting off potential candidates. Think about selling the role and the organisation, why is the role attractive? What do you love about working there?  What kind of support is available from management or legal officer?

 Offering competitive compensation and benefits

Attracting top legal talent requires more than just a well-defined role and an appealing work environment – it also necessitates offering competitive compensation and benefits. Here’s how you can approach this, in order to secure the best locum candidates:

• Understanding pay rates: Research market rates for locum professionals in your area and legal field to ensure your offer is attractive, or consult an expert legal recruiter to support with this. You may also want to think about the level of expertise and complexity of the work that will be carried out.

• Additional benefits: While locums may not typically receive the full range of benefits afforded to permanent employees, there are still several ways to enhance your offer. Consider offering benefits such as flexible working hours.

Communication and decision making is key 

Given the temporary and often high-pressure nature of locum roles, ensuring that these processes are handled efficiently can make a significant difference in the outcomes of your recruitment efforts and the overall success of the placement.

We would recommend that you review CVs quickly and try to set up interviews within 48 hours if this is realistic. We would also suggest implementing a system where you can provide interview feedback on the same day.

The locum market moves quickly, therefore, to secure the right candidate it is crucial to communicate effectively with your recruitment partner throughout the process and to do this within a short period of time.

Utilising specialist recruitment agencies

Partnering with a specialist recruitment agency like Sellick Partnership can streamline the locum recruitment process. Our expertise in the public sector ensures that you have access to a network of fully vetted, specialist candidates, and our industry knowledge means that we understand your challenges and requirements, with the ability to communicate these to the right candidates.

In addition to this, our award-winning Compliance Team ensures that all candidates meet the necessary legal and professional standards, providing peace of mind and reducing hiring risks.

The relationship with a recruitment agency doesn’t end once a locum is placed. At Sellick Partnership, we offer ongoing support, helping to manage the relationship between the employer and locum, ensuring that both the client and candidate are satisfied, leading to a successful and productive engagement.

Specialist legal recruiters bring strategic insights and market knowledge that can be incredibly valuable to clients, particularly when it comes to shaping your overall recruitment strategy. They can provide advice on industry trends, salary benchmarks, and emerging skill sets, helping you make informed decisions.

Conclusion

Successfully recruiting and managing legal locums requires a strategic approach that consists of clear communication, decisive action, and a thorough understanding of both the market and your organisation’s specific needs. From defining the duration and scope of the role to crafting a detailed job description and offering competitive compensation, each step plays an essential role in attracting and retaining top talent.

Utilising specialist recruitment agencies can streamline the process, providing access to a broad talent pool and offering expertise that ensures a smooth and efficient hiring process. When it comes to conducting interviews, focusing on relevant experience, adaptability, and cultural fit is key to selecting candidates who can seamlessly integrate into your team and deliver immediate value.

By partnering with experts like Sellick Partnership, you can ensure access to the best talent who are able to meet your organisation's legal needs efficiently and effectively. You can contact us today to discuss your requirements or to find out more about how we can support you.