The General Counsel

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is a prominent law firm based in New York City with offices located throughout the US and Internationally. If you aren’t familiar with Skadden, some of their practice areas include mergers and acquisitions, litigation, securities law, taxation, and bankruptcy representation.

A Strategic Alliance

Skadden tapped SD to create a unique and sophisticated way to recruit law students in their mid-twenties. Recruitment at Skadden can be a remarkable opportunity, however it can be challenging for candidates to distinguish among the various groups and individuals while tracking all the interactions.

Recruitment De Novo

Something Digital created the Skadden Start Here iPhone app to engage law students before and during the recruiting process to help better manage their experience.  App users are able learn about the firm’s unique character and get tips on interviewing, networking, training, and the summer associate program. Candidates can find any of the firm’s global offices, learn about their respective practice areas, and even get contact details for the recruiter at each location. What’s more, users can share information from the app with a friend.

One of the most exciting features is Image Recognition Technology. The user has the ability to scan Skadden business cards and automatically download the card holder’s bio and contact details, which are then saved in a list for easy reference. Integrating a BCR technology as an add-on to ABBYY OCR allows this feature to work as follows:

User takes a picture of the business card.
App sends a request to the server.
Server returns card holder’s bio in XML file.
App displays bio and contact details.

With the BCR add-on, the app places the OCR text data into the appropriate fields (name, email, phone). The profile and contact details are then saved in the app for future use in a contact list that is managed by the SQLite platform. This card reader feature also creates a contact page for business cards of individuals outside of the organization. To manage additional information, the user can take and store notes in the “Notes” section.

The Verdict is In

This app is unique, but practical and it adds a fun, yet informative dimension to what typically is an overwhelming process. Candidates can download the app from iTunes now to start their journey though Skadden recruitment.

The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) selected Skadden as the Second Place winner in the Recruiting category of the 2012 Your Honor Awards. The award was presented to Skadden on March 15 at the 26th Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference in Grapevine, Texas.