{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love","title":"Episode 350 | What Legal Recruiters Tell Us About How Small Firms Are Attracting Associates Without Big Law Salaries","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1294,"description":"Get a few women law firm owners in a room, and the conversation turns to hiring, and then somebody asks the question that sits on every small firm owner's mind. How am I supposed to compete with the bigger firms when it's time to hire an associate?\nMost of us decided we lost that contest before it started.\nIn this episode of the Wealthy Woman Lawyer® podcast, I dug into what legal recruiters are telling us right now, in 2026, about how solo and small firms are landing good associate attorneys. Some of what they said may surprise you.\nStart with the market. Unemployment for attorneys has been sitting around 1.5%, so recruiters aren't sorting through a stack of desperate applicants. They're competing to reach people who already have a job and think it's fine. That changes what your offer has to do. And remember that if Big Law is only hiring the top one percent out of the top-tier schools, that leaves 99 percent of us.\nI walk through the five things recruiters say are pulling strong candidates toward smaller firms. You already have access to most of them. You may never have told a candidate about a single one.\nWe also cover the one-page exercise recruiters want you to do before you write a word of a job posting, three interview questions worth stealing for your next conversation, and why the speed of your hiring process is part of your pitch whether you meant it to be or not.\nThen there's Renee, who ran a family law practice doing $650,000 a year and spent two years telling herself she couldn't afford an associate.\nThe woman she hired had a higher offer on the table from a larger firm and took Renee's anyway. A year later, that associate was running the firm's entire custody caseload on her own, revenue was up almost 30 percent, and Renee took a full week of vacation without her phone.\nYou are not losing a compensation war. You were never in one.\nGo here to listen:\n\nLINKS TO LOVE:\n\nWant to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts? We'd so appreciate it, and it helps...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/lrmaPGAHCWNx8xc5kHiVuHyaCevgy4VTFAgsROdV_hw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE0NjEvMTY3NDU5/MjI5MC1hcnR3b3Jr/LmpwZw.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}