How do you recruit lawyers of the Millennium (or Y) Generation and how do you retain them?

Those were the questions I was recently asked by a recruiting coordinator of a major law firm. I think it begins by understanding them and how they are different from lawyers in my generation.

When I was in charge of attorney development at my old law firm, I sought to better understand the Y Generation lawyers. Here is my list of Top 10 things that are important to this group:

  1. They want to work for firms whose leaders do not take themselves too seriously.
  2. They want to work in a comfortable atmosphere, one in which they can be themselves.
  3. They want to work for firms where they have an essential contribution to the success of their firm and their clients.
  4. They want to work for a firm that values – and practices – community service.
  5. They want to work on teams and to make friends at a firm.
  6. They want their work to be interesting, and will get easily bored if unchallenged.
  7. They want their firms to provide them with the most up-to-date technology to better perform their work.
  8. They want and will seek constant and continuous feedback from their supervising attorneys.
  9. They want to be treated fairly – as they define it – and will place a very high value on it.
  10. They want – demand – sincerity from firm leaders.