Traditionally, well-positioned law firm partners see an uptick in calls from recruiters for a number of reasons tied to their professional success.

Contacts can become more frequent, for instance, if a partner's star is on the rise, maybe because they've recently won a major piece of litigation or concluded a big deal that has generated buzz and perhaps a bit of press coverage. Or perhaps their practice area has become especially hot, like securities litigation, bankruptcy or financial services regulatory work.

While attorneys enjoying these successes will always be in demand, such achievements don't account for the record number of cold calls that many are currently fielding. Some might suggest an additional reason is the very challenging year many law firms had in 2008 -- and continue to suffer well into 2009 -- with workforce reductions striking even the most iconic firms, and a number of once-venerable partnerships dissolving in a matter of months. However, recruiters have traditionally targeted firms with significant drops in profits-per-partner, so we must look elsewhere.

In fact, the primary reason for the especially aggressive courting of partners is that legal recruiters who had been doing associate placement work now have little or nothing to do. Faced with the choice of starving or turning to the one market that remains fluid, associate recruiters have chosen the latter, even though the vast majority of associate recruiters have no experience placing attorneys with substantial books of business or extensive -- and sometimes complicated -- client relationships.

An attorney friend of mine believes that in Dante's "circles of hell," legal recruiters occupy a level somewhere between music industry executives and car dealers. That is a harsh judgment, but not without some truth. Our industry does have its share of what "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace used to refer to as scoundrels and scallywags. When you add to this the legion of inexperienced recruiters with low track records at placing more-senior partners or even counsel, there is more reason than ever for partners to be wary about which recruiter they work with.

When speaking with partner candidates I am often amazed at how many will allow someone to "submit" their credentials to a law firm without really knowing much about the person making that presentation. This is dangerous but never more so than in the current climate.

Consider: would your clients ever entrust a "bet the company" matter to you without having a good idea of your professional background and actual experience in similar situations? Of course not. Think of your decision about whether to remain at your current firm or to make a move to a new home as a "bet the company" matter in the overall scheme of your career. Viewed that way, you are likely to want representation only by recruiters with a stellar track record of integrity and placing partners with at least your level of achievement. In other words, if you are a securities litigator with $10 million in portable business, you want someone who has worked with partners with sizeable books of business.

The good news is that it is relatively easy to separate the wheat from the chaff. Here are a few must-ask questions to pose to any recruiter seeking to represent you.

1. What firm are you calling on behalf of?

The best recruiters are calling on behalf of a specific client -- as opposed to those simply dialing partners trolling for bait, who after finding interested partners on the phone line, run to the Am Law 100 list and send the partner to multiple firms, claiming that Partner 'X' is interested in speaking with them.

2. Who do you work with at the firm?

One partner I know always gives cold-calling recruiters a reality check by asking about a fictitious partner at the named law firm. "Oh, you're working with the 'XYZ' firm, you must know Fred Goldsmith". Any affirmative response ends the conversation.

As a general rule you want to hear that the person calling you is working with either the firm-wide chair, managing partner, head of a particular practice group, head of lateral recruiting and/or the managing partner of the firm's office in your city. The closer the relationship between firm and headhunter the more valuable that recruiter can be to you.