Recruit lawyers through an ad in a major trade publication? (Microsoft does)

Oodles of lawyers desperately want jobs, it’s a buyers’ market for any legal department that has an opening, and unsolicited resumes and beseeching inquiries flood in to general counsel – or so I thought. Why bother to throw out a line when fish are leaping into your boat? But there it is, an expensive full-page ad gracing Inside Counsel, Jan. 2010 at 11, by Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs (LCA). “If you are interested in joining a multidisciplinary team that’s making a real and lasting difference,” visit LCA’s site.

Does legendary Microsoft have to stoop to this, I thought? On second thought, however, for a few thousand dollars LCA might find strong talent that it would not otherwise unearth. I don’t interpret the ad as an admission of the Redmond giant’s difficulty recruiting, but rather as a smart move with tremendous potential for return on investment (See my post of Sept. 22, 2009: ways to find lawyers for openings other than search firms with 17 references.).