HireTrade: Job Site For Legal Eagles
by
on September 12, 2007,
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.
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Jowers
Michael Fidler 
jiri
Hi,
I am the CEO of HireTrade and just wanted to clarify a few points in the article.
We do not have a subscriber fee, nor do we make it such that only certain subscribers can view projects or profiles. Furthermore, we only charge when the optional HireTrade Connect service is used to facilitate any engagement between a legal professional and client. HireTrade Connect includes billing, payment processing, optional employer-of-record service, and our unique ratings system–we think the benefits of using HireTrade Connect far outweigh our modest fee (10% of gross billings, much less than the temporary legal agency norm). However, we do not compel anyone to use HireTrade Connect even for projects posted on HireTrade or where connections are found through HireTrade–clients and professionals are free to connect on their own. The system is generally an open system as we are strong believers in open and transparent markets.
Also, as you state, while its true “the rating system is standard for social job boards, with clients and professionals able to rate their experience with each other and the job”, our ratings system is anything but standard as we use a unique HourlyValue Ratings System that aggregates the collective valuation opinions of past clients, which we feel is a far superior system than other ratings systems in that it provides valuable comparative information regarding the level of service to expect from professionals, provides incentives for professionals to perform at a high level, and also ensures that professionals get rewarded for good work. We do not think that simple numerical systems provide much value in the context of professional services.
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Neil Sandhu
I'm so glad you stopped by to discuss the fine points with us. As I mentioned in the article there were some parts of your site I wasn't able to get to. We appreciate the input!
No problem. We have been working on some exciting changes, with some just released and more on tap.
We just launched the HireTrade Network at http://www.hiretradenetwork.com. The HireTrade Network is a new open network for contract legal professionals, law firms, clients, agencies, and other parties throughout the world to interact, network, and let other members of the network know about upcoming legal projects.
Thanks.
Neil Sandhu
Just letting you know that our site has undergone some major upgrades and our business model changed after our 3-month beta testing period so a lot of the information here is out-dated - we just launched this week upon completion of our initial beta-testing period.
Here is some information about HireTrade:
What is HireTrade?
HireTrade is a new one-of-a-kind legal marketplace that allows legal staffing agencies, headhunters, law firms, businesses, and clients to find, compare, choose, and manage the recruitment of the best legal professionals for their projects and jobs while allowing legal professionals to gain access to and express interest in various projects, jobs, and client engagements.
HireTrade is 100% free for professionals and a basic membership is free for hiring parties as well, while a low-cost premium membership provides hiring parties with unrivaled services to help them find and choose the best professionals for their projects and jobs as well as manage the recruitment process.
Powered by the patent-pending HourlyValue Ratings System, HireTrade harnesses the collective wisdom of clients in order to create a more efficient market for professional services.
HireTrade is a legal staffing marketplace that is not affiliated with any staffing agency, headhunter, law firm, business, or other entity.
Hiring Parties (Legal Staffing Agencies, Headhunters, Law Firms, Businesses, and Clients)
What do hiring parties get with a basic (free) membership?
Free profile creation
Free unlimited project and job postings
Post detailed job or project descriptions for all of your jobs and projects for absolutely free
What do hiring parties get with a premium membership:
Whether you are a staffing agency looking for highly-qualified contract legal professionals, a headhunter, law firm, or business looking for permanent hires, or a client (business or individual) looking to hire a lawyer or other legal professional, our premium membership helps you find, compare, choose, and manage candidates for your projects and jobs.
Project and job staffing search and management
Unlimited project and job postings with project staffing management for each job or project
Search our database and notify candidates through our system of your interest in potentially hiring them for a job or project
Qualified candidates can also view your job and project postings and privately indicate interest in your jobs and projects through our system
Qualified candidates will come to you in response to your job and project postings without you having to search for them
Manage it all from a private central projects page
No need to get flooded with resumes or having to search all over for candidates yourself
View which professionals you have contacted and their responses
View which professionals are interested in your jobs and projects
Three choices when posting your projects or jobs: public, anonymous, or private
If desired, you can make your jobs or projects anonymous or entirely private
Privately search for and contact legal professionals for your jobs and projects without publicly revealing your or your client’s identities
Access to our unique powerful patent-pending HourlyValue Professional Performance Ratings Database
Access to our one-of-a-kind ratings system that harnesses the collective wisdom of past clients (read more about the HourlyValue Ratings System below)
Compare professionals and get the best professionals staffed on your projects and jobs
Gain a competitive advantage and help to ensure satisfied clients and repeat customers
Access to a large and growing database of highly-qualified professionals
Reach many more highly-qualified lawyers and other legal professionals than you can on your own
Our list of professionals is large and growing daily, and includes partners and associates at large and small law firms, highly-qualified contract attorneys and other temporary legal professionals, paralegals, and legal secretaries
Furthermore, with our advertising budget and Internet placement, our reach extends far beyond professionals currently signed up with our service – even if you do not see a match in our database, qualified professionals meeting your needs will sign up and express interest in your projects or jobs in response to your project and job listings
We do a lot of the advertising of your jobs and projects for you and bring highly-qualified professionals to you
Even if you are a small agency, firm, or client, by using our service you can staff your projects with the best talent and compete with your much larger competition
If you are a large agency, firm, or client, you get access to additional highly-qualified professionals to quickly and easily staff your jobs or projects with the best talent
In addition to our large and growing database of professionals, we advertise online on legal websites and search engines as well as offline, so you are able to take advantage of our large marketing network and reach and have qualified candidates come to you quickly to meet your needs
Access to additional professional information, including a full resume and bar license number information (if provided by professional) and client testimonials
Unrivaled value for the money
How much is a premium agency, law firm, client membership?
The cost of a premium membership, which gets you all of the above-mentioned services, is only $299 per month or you can pre-pay for a whole year at the discounted rate of $3199 per year.
Our monthly fee is less than the cost of two or three contract referrals in most cases and even the yearly fee is a fraction of most single permanent referrals.
There are no other fees.
Legal Professionals
What do legal professionals get with a membership?
HireTrade is 100% free for professionals
HireTrade is geared towards all legal professionals:
Members of large and small law firms interested in providing legal services to new clients
Contract attorneys and other temporary legal professionals looking for projects
Lawyers, paralegals, legal secretaries and other legal professionals looking for permanent jobs or projects
Rather than having to seek out projects and jobs from hundreds of agencies, clients, and other sources, let them come to you and manage your projects and jobs from one central location
By putting up a profile on HireTrade, you can both gain access to new clients as well as new projects or jobs, if you choose
You can privately indicate interest in jobs and projects
You have total control over who you want to contact and what projects and jobs you want to express interest in
It is up to you whether you want to respond to and express interest in specific client requests, contract projects, or permanent jobs
You can easily compare projects and rates and choose the best one(s) for you
You control what information to include in your profile and who can access your contact information
You control how much information to display on your public profile
You can include as much or as little information in your publicly viewable profile
While it is up to you, we encourage including at least some information about your skills, abilities, and experiences in your publicly-viewable profile so as to get potential clients, firms, and agencies interested in learning more about you
You control access to your contact information
Your contact information is not publicly displayed
Your contact information can be accessed by interested hiring decision makers only after you have either:
allowed them to view your contact information by accepting their request; or
if you express interest in their project or job through our system
You can allow premium hiring parties access to more detailed information by uploading a resume and entering Bar number information that only such agencies, firms, and other premium hiring parties can privately view
HourlyValue Ratings
Let potential hiring parties know about your good work by encouraging past clients to submit ratings using our unique professional performance ratings system
Become known as a high-performing professional
Get access to higher paying jobs and projects
Have hiring parties compete for your services
Professionals with HourlyValue Ratings data will show up higher in relevant search results
We do not provide ratings information to the general public but only to premium hiring decision makers
Even premium members can view average scores only after three or more ratings have been submitted
Individual ratings scores are never provided
We attempt to verify submissions and the authenticity of sources
You always have free access to your own ratings data
You can always view your own average HourlyValue Ratings and, thus, see the information that will be provided to premium hiring parties
The professional is free to publish his or her average HourlyValue Ratings statistics if they choose on their own resumes, websites, or other materials as long as such publication accurately reflects the ratings on our website
No strings attached
You can try our service out and can edit or entirely delete your profile at any time
If you delete your profile, all ratings information will be deleted as well
What is the HourlyValue Ratings System™ and how does it work?
The HourlyValue Ratings System provides a powerful and efficient way for hiring parties to compare the level of service that is likely to be provided by professionals and for professionals to get paid closer to what their work is worth. Thus a more transparent and efficient market for professional services is created.
From a professional’s profile page, anyone who has hired the professional in the past can rate the professional’s performance using our unique patent-pending HourlyValue Ratings System. The project or job for which the rating is being provided can have taken place at any time in the past and need not have been one which was posted on our website. We attempt to verify the authenticity and the source of information before accepting it in our system and do not accept all submissions.
Among other things, our ratings form asks the client to provide the total hours billed as well as the client’s opinion, in hindsight, of the value of the work provided by the professional (regardless of the actual total fees paid). We do not publish statistics or ratings given on individual projects or jobs (or the source of such information). From the information provided, the HourlyValue Ratings is calculated.
The HourlyValue Ratings System captures the monetary value per hour billed that, in hindsight after viewing the work product upon completion of the job or project, the client feels the professional’s work was worth. As data on individual jobs and projects is captured and averaged with data on other jobs and projects, the professional’s average HourlyValue Ratings will begin to reflect the true value for her services—i.e., the value per hour billed that clients, on average, place on the professional’s services.
While hiring parties ultimately need to do their own due diligence and weigh a variety of factors prior to hiring a professional, the average HourlyValue Ratings will often provide useful comparative information when deciding among candidates for a potential job or project. In addition, this monetary ratings value can be easily compared to the professional’s billing rate to get an idea of whether the professional normally over- or under-performs and whether clients normally get good value for their money from the professional.
(Note that we do not publish HourlyValue Ratings statistics on individual projects or jobs, nor do we publish average HourlyValue Ratings data at all until after the professional has ratings on at least three projects or jobs. Even published average scores are not accessible to the general public, but can only be viewed by the professional and interested premium hiring parties although, if the professional chooses, the professional can separately publish his or her own scores as long as such publication accurately reflects his or her scores on our website. Furthermore, the professional can delete his or her profile, including average HourlyValue Ratings data, at any time.)
How do I contact HireTrade?
You can sign up, create and edit your profile, create and edit project and job postings, send and receive project and job requests, and manage your projects and jobs all via our online system.
If you have any questions, the best way to reach us is via email at info@hiretrade.com although we can also be reached at 703-349-3139.