This is the Recruiting page for With Certitude, LLC. Our original and primary function is finding jobs for associates at law firms in Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
I started Mackenzie & Welsh, LLC, now known as With Certitude, LLC, as a legal recruiting firm in 2008 when I left Major Lindsey & Africa. I loved working at MLA. It had great people, great resources. Offices were in a great building on Wacker Drive, right off the Metra line. But I was just one of a dozen local recruiters in that one office, targeting a candidate list we were all competing for, to fill positions that were dwindling starting in the Fall of 2007. I decided I could serve a smaller target audience on my own without someone down the hall making contact with all of the same candidates offering all of the same jobs from the comfort of our swank corporate office.
Since our founding, we have helped dozens of young attorneys in our major markets and even several in new cities where we had contacts. We did this one by one, individually meeting the needs of our clients. We also coach young professionals on business development, networking, use of social media and and public speaking.
Now, the market is shifting back in a positive direction for lawyers who hope to explore new opportunities. We will see hiring activity pick up significantly over the next six to nine months. With Certitude, LLC is in an excellent position to help.
Download With Certitude Recruiting Client Info Sheet
Our website will provide you [content is being added every day] with a collection of tools to help focus your career development strategy into a concrete plan. You can download forms to guide you in considering your career goals, to help you determine where your strengths are, and to help us to assist you in reaching your targets. You can also download articles that may assist you in understanding the changing job market and your role in it - this collection will be updated on a regular basis, and will also be included in our monthly newsletter. If you are interested, you can also learn a thing or two about speaking in public, or sign up for one of our seminars or workshops.
You may use this Recruiting page and the links and forms included here for your own career advancement. You will find the companion Coaching page useful - it contains a collection of tools we use in our one-on-one consultations. We hope you will choose to work with us, allowing us to either 1) coach you or act as your consultant in the development process or to 2) act as your representative in the job search. In any event, we hope that you will share with us how these materials have helped you.
Recruiting services
Believe it or not, there are a number of large and medium size law firms in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta that are hiring associates this week. You may have already submitted a resume directly to one or more of them, or you may be working with a recruiter who is representing you in the job search. We sincerely wish you the best of success in these efforts.
We work on a slightly different model. Our approach is more of a Jerry McGuire type of representation. More hands on. More one-on-one contact with the attorneys who hire us as
their representative and with the law firm recruiting directors and hiring partners to whom we offer candidates. Less "show me the money" and more "is this opportunity really better?"
Many of our recruiting candidates come through our coaching program. In fact, we offer a full refund of the coaching fees paid if we successfully place the candidate with a law firm. [see info on Coaching page]
All recruiting firms are not alike. However, we all have access to and subscriptions for the same databases of lawyers in each metropolitan city. We can all identify the candidates who attended the top law schools or who excelled at the study of law. And, most importantly, we all have access to and subscriptions for the same databases and job boards showing what law firms are hiring for what positions in what practice groups. After all, I learned from the best.
The difference is personal. I learned the business with the biggest and best firm in the country. They have the tools and the resources to represent every candidate in the market, if the market wanted that. But they are agents representing candidates. And they represent a lot of candidates. But there are not that enough jobs for all of the candidates. How can we advocate for all the candidates when they all seek the same job? It is a dilemma.
Law firms are now hyper-selective. They only want to see resumes of the most talented candidates with the best qualifications. Is that you? How is your recruiter/agent helping to make your story compelling?
Our mission as your agent is to tell the compelling story of your candidacy to the people that matter at the firms you match up with. To get you the best opportunity. We don't represent all the candidates. Or thousands of candidates. But we have represented a lot of lawyers who like what we do. If you want to work with someone you will enjoy working with, call me. Or fill out the following form and send it to me by email. I look forward to meeting you.