HireTrade: Job Site For Legal Eagles

For some time now professionals in all areas have had social job boards for their profession.  The granddaddy of them all is Monster.com, a job site that is less social job board than classifieds and handles a broad spectrum of professions.  Then you have sites like Elance, a social job network for creative professionals, Rent-A-Coder, a social job board for computer professionals and more.  Now HireTrade steps into the fray, providing a social job board network for legal professionals.

Offering jobs for every rung of the legal eagle ladder, from paralegals up to law firm partners, HireTrade helps people with legal issues find the professional help they need to take care of it.  Starting a company and in need of incorporating? HireTrade can help you find a lawyer in your area to handle that.  Fresh out of law school and hanging your first shingle? Post your profile and experience on HireTrade and let them help you find clients.

Offering profiles, connections with other professionals and clients, credential services, money management, and a social rating system, HireTrade brings connectivity to an overlooked field.  The rating system is standard for social job boards, with clients and professionals able to rate their experience with each other and the job.  This helps improve the quality of work provided, true, but it also helps weed out bad clients, an invaluable service for the new lawyer.

The job search function is simple. Once you sign up (which is free), set up your profile and select your rates for each service.

Then go to the FindJobs area. HireTrade provides a selection screen with a comprehensive list of choices that range from areas of the country to areas of expertise and more.

Narrow down your search, and HireTrade will provide you with results. You can then offer your serves to those people seeking your help.

The results screen is easy to us.  You are presented with a list of potential clients or potential lawyers (depending on if you are searching as a client or as a professional).  The rates clients will pay, and the rates lawyers are offering, are displayed clearly next to each job. This makes it easy to find help in your budget.  Simply click on the name of the job or professional to find out more.

HireTrade offers one unique feature that other social job boards lack – forums.  Once you join HireTrade, you can enter the community discussions. This gives you an array of networking options that are tailored to your needs.  No mucking about on sites like MySpace and LinkedIn trying to find contacts with similar interests. Here you are presented with only contacts sharing your interests.  The resource this provides and the time it saves busy legal eagles are priceless.

As with any job site, HireTrade makes it money in fees after the fact.  When you hire through HireTrade, they take a percentage from the invoice total. Posting jobs and creating a profile are free.  Because I am not a legal professional, I could not see the legal FAQ to determine if professionals are charged a monthly fee to see more jobs, as Elance does. I would imagine that is the case – it is pretty standard practice for social job boards.  Currently, HireTrade is in Beta. This means that the number of professionals and clients currently signed up are less than ideal.  However, they are not restricting the Beta. It is an open sign up for legal professionals and clients seeking legal help, and it’s definitely worth a look for this niche market.