Michelle Foster and The Foster Group: Leading the Way in Legal Recruiting in 2024
/Michelle Foster and The Foster Group: Leading the Way in Legal Recruiting in 2024
The legal world is shifting in unprecedented ways, putting attorneys and law firms alike in need of a guide capable of understanding and navigating the new landscape of legal recruiting. The Foster Group, which takes a unique long-term career mentoring approach to recruiting, is the perfect recruiting firm to serve as that guide. Its commitment to establishing deep and long-standing relationships with a broad and diverse cross-section of firms and companies allows it to provide the tailored approach to recruiting that attorneys and firms need now more than ever.
“The shifts occurring in the legal field are creating a whole new set of questions regarding attorneys and firms,” explains Michelle Foster, Founder of The Foster Group. “Employers and employees both have some hard questions they want to explore before moving too far into the process. Our commitment to building long-term relationships puts us in a position to help navigate those questions. We can fill the knowledge gaps that the recent shifts have created, allowing attorneys and firms to move forward in the explorations process with confidence.”
The Foster Group is a full-service legal recruiting firm with decades of experience in helping attorneys advance their careers by securing exceptional placements and highly sought-after positions. The specialized work it performs assists top corporations and law firms in finding talent that can support strategic growth and serve clients.
“We approach every opportunity with a high level of sincerity and focus, knowing that it has the potential to change the career trajectory of an attorney or the overall performance potential of a firm,” Michelle says. “Playing a supportive role in such a positive transformation is something we strive to deliver again and again.”
Helping attorneys to secure more flexibility
One of the historic changes currently happening in the legal field involves a shift toward more flexibility. Inspired by lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic - when firms were forced to transition to remote work models - firms have become more open to the idea of attorneys working from home.
“The pandemic allowed law firms to explore the viability of remote work models, testing whether the attorneys who were suddenly required to work from home were able to keep up with their obligations,” says Michelle. “what they saw, to varying degrees, was that it could work and that it could save them money. They also saw that attorneys liked the new model, which meant they could leverage it for recruiting and retention. Overall, the experiment has resulted in a significant increase in opportunities for flexibility.”
The shift toward increased flexibility has kept Michelle and The Foster Group busy guiding their clients on how to best capitalize on opportunities in both the short and long term. The career counseling they provide, which leverages the insider knowledge they have developed during decades of working in the recruiting field, provides the insights needed to secure a position that is flexible as well as a good fit for the future.
“Those in the legal profession have long desired working arrangements that would allow for a healthy work/life balance, but it was something that was not easily found,” Michelle says. “The pandemic changed that. Flexibility in the legal field, which was previously very rare, has now become an option many attorneys are very eager to secure.”
Leading clients through new and more nuanced conversations
While increased flexibility seems to have secured a permanent place in the legal landscape, exactly how it will be facilitated continues to evolve. Consequently, the services The Foster Group offers, and the unique approach it takes to providing these services, have become especially valuable.
“The shift toward more flexibility has led to conversations surrounding recruiting that are more nuanced,” explains Drew Foster, Managing Director at The Foster Group. “Prior to this shift, expectations on both sides of the table were for the most part uniformly the same. Today, things aren’t as straightforward.”
For attorneys looking at a future that has a lot of uncertainty, the process can be unsettling, as finding hard facts on how committed firms are to flexibility can be challenging. For firms, remote work also poses new risks since determining whether attorneys can produce quality work consistently in a remote environment relies on analyzing data that, for many, does not exist.
In such situations, firms and attorneys alike look to The Foster Group for insights that can only be developed over the course of long-term relationships.
“Making a career move is one of the few important decisions we make that impacts every facet of our lives,” says Drew. “Our role as legal recruiters is to provide the knowledge and insight needed to navigate a complex job market that has now grown even more complex. The career counseling approach we take at The Foster Group gives us a special brand of insight that helps our clients to identify and secure the positions that take their careers to the next level.”