Legal Staffing Agencies Offer Referral Fees and Working Bonuses, But Getting Them To Pay Up Can Sometimes Be A Challenge
Pouring on the incentives is how placement agencies entice contract attorneys to submit themselves for hard to staff projects. I can always tell when the agencies are having a hard time filling a law firm’s staffing order. The job forums and listservs will be silent but then suddenly explode with an urgent flurry of post traffic with calls for contract workers. The posts will come from different agencies, all attempting to staff the same project and recruit the requisite number of contract attorneys for project submission before their competitors can. When agencies start touting their referral fees and project completion bonuses, you know they are getting antsy about losing the project to some other staffing firm. This is when contract attorneys should swoop in to snag the goodies.
Referral Fees and Working Bonuses Generally
Referral fees vary but are generally around $100-250 per attorney that you refer and takes on an assignment. The newer and smaller agencies tend to offer higher referrals since they need to find ways to steal workers from the big boys. Some of the larger, more established agencies like Compliance prefer to keep their referral policies intentionally fuzzy. If you ask Compliance about their referral rates, they will give you some spiel about how they don’t have a blanket referral fee and usually only give out referrals for certain projects. I find this case by case referral policy to be much too subjective and prone to nonpayment. I hope they will eventually adopt the more transparent referral policies that most of the other agencies offer.
Along with referrals, most agencies also offer billable hour incentive bonuses to encourage you to work more. The policy specifics vary but after you’ve worked a certain number of hours, usually around 400 on average, you are entitled to an 8 hour bonus payable at your usual wage rate ($35 an hour). Most of these bonuses are not automatically paid out so you’ll have to take it upon yourself to actually request them.
Actually Getting the Agency To Fork Over the Bonuses Is Easier Said Than Done
Although agencies like to advertise their referral fees and bonuses when soliciting for contract attorneys, they usually prefer to keep mum about their policies once you are on board. Bonuses are generally not paid out unless you specifically request them so it is your own duty to keep track of your referrals as well as your hours worked, based on the cumulative information found on your pay stubs. Thus after you’ve surpassed the requisite hours, be sure to alert your agency of your entitlement. It’s all part of the contractual bargain made to you when you took on the assignment, so you’re entitled to it. Don’t miss out!
Not all agencies are so ambiguous on this matter. I have to give credit to Special Counsel for their speedy payouts. I’ve referred attorneys to them before and they’ve always paid out very quickly, mailing me a check on the spot even though I wasn’t staffed on a project through them at the time.
Other agencies like Ajilon-Staffwise and Hudson require you to be currently staffed with them at the time of request before they will hand you your referral or billable hour bonus. I fail to see the logic behind this requirement, other than to make it harder for people to get their entitled referral/bonus checks. Don’t be so cheap, legal staffing agencies. We help stock your supply, so the very least you could do is provide the promised compensation rather than reinforce the money grubbing reputation many contract attorneys have of the legal staffing agencies. After all, it’s a symbiotic relationship and we need each other in this contracting business (at least until someone figures out a way to cut out the middle man). 
December 13th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Hudson totally screwed me out of referral fee because I was not staffed with them at the time. What a joke! I will never refer anyone to that agency again.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I was fortunate to receive referral fees from the following agencies:
Update Legal
Lexolution
Ajilon/Staffwise
Legal Placements
I made over $500 bucks w/ just referral fees, so it helps to refer people.
The blogger is right – you have to ask them for it, and follow up too, otherwise they won’t voluntarily remind you
January 30th, 2008 at 1:09 am
I received a referral fee in law school from Hire Counsel for referring a nurse paralegal from my section who hadn’t got a summer clerkship. It was great for a 1L doing temp work! I was just helping out a friend. AND they did remind me a couple of times that I had my check waiting at the office.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:18 am
This is my first time going to a Temp agency. I have a MA in Education, and new in the industry; as the teaching industry is slow right now, I decided to go to a temp egency. The temp told me that I will be making $10. hours due to?
Could you tell me what is the rate for clerical work, even with litle exp. I Thank you for your assistance.
M. P.
February 4th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I have received referral fees from Lexolution, Update, Special Counsel and Staffwise. I was not employed by any of them at the time I received the checks. Nor did I have to chase any of them — all arrived without any request from me (in a couple of cases I didn’t even know I was entitled to them) EXCEPT for Special Counsel….that one required numerous phone calls, emails, etc.