Top talent, according to Tim Marsman of Loyens & Loeff, no longer stands out on grades and CVs but on learning agility, critical thinking and the ability to build a relationship with a client. AI now reproduces knowledge, so the firm looks at what someone does when the situation is still unclear.
Tim Marsman is Head of Talent Acquisition at Loyens & Loeff. He fell into recruitment more or less by accident after university, started on the agency side in a commercial role and then moved to corporate recruitment at a large consultancy. After a detour into the automotive sector he returned to professional services. In this first episode of the series What Great Looks Like he explains what separates the top five to ten percent from the rest, why Loyens & Loeff is rebuilding its recruitment process from a blank sheet, and which new profile the firm has started hiring.
Q: How did Tim Marsman of Loyens & Loeff end up in recruitment?
A: Like many others, he fell into it by accident after university. He started on the agency side in a commercial role and enjoyed it for a few years, but he noticed he would rather be part of the organisation he was recruiting for. So he moved to corporate recruitment at a large consultancy. A short detour as lead recruitment in the automotive sector followed, before he returned to professional services. In all those roles he worked for organisations looking for the top end of the market.
Q: Why does a CV say so little about top talent?
A: Because everyone applying for these roles looks the same on paper. Good degree, good grades, experience from internships. Those candidates are already in a sub-top group, because without that package you do not even get through. Being in the top five or ten percent within that group is much harder, and a CV does not show that difference. What Tim saw across law, consultancy and automotive were the same personal qualities. To spot those, you have to talk to someone.
Q: Why is learning agility becoming more important than reproducing knowledge?
A: Because AI is taking over that reproduction, and that is exactly what grades used to predict well. Loyens & Loeff has set up a new AI strategy and acknowledged in it that the firm does not know where it will stand in ten years, whereas earlier strategies assumed it did. What is left is learning agility, or how quickly someone picks up new things. Daring to experiment and daring to make mistakes are part of that. Tim would rather look at adaptability than at what someone already knows today.
Q: Which skills will AI not take over in legal and tax work?
A: Building a relationship with a client and working across disciplines. Clients rarely come with one legal or tax question, he says, but with a set of questions, and they want one firm that picks up the whole picture. That means looking beyond your own expertise and pulling in the rest of the organisation. He saw the same thing happen in his roles outside law. This interpersonal side is not something you read off a CV.
Q: Why do critical thinking and self-reflection matter more now that AI is in use?
A: Because you cannot simply take the output of a language model at face value. Tim names two sides of reflection. The first is looking at yourself and asking whether you would do something differently next time. The second is testing the content, so checking whether something is correct and whether the sources hold up. In professional services, he says, complete reports have been presented more than once that turned out to be based on nothing. Poor work used to be recognisable by poor writing, and that signal is gone.
Q: What role does entrepreneurship play in the profile of top talent?
A: A bigger one than before. Loyens & Loeff looks at whether someone holds their own in a situation that has not settled yet. So not stopping at the observation that something is unclear, but choosing a direction, exploring it and setting something up. Spotting opportunities, Tim calls it. The classic route ran from precise execution, through managing projects and stakeholders, to commercial work. Because AI shrinks the execution part, those later layers come into play sooner.
Q: What does AI mean for the work of junior lawyers at Loyens & Loeff?
A: That their work shifts, not that they disappear. Where you used to spend hours comparing due diligence reports, AI does that far more efficiently. That does not necessarily mean fewer juniors, but it does mean the juniors who are there focus on other things. Client relationships and building a lasting connection come up earlier in a career as a result. Whether the pyramid will shrink over time, Tim will not say. It is being discussed, but nobody knows where the firm will stand in five to ten years.
Q: What is the AI Summer School at Loyens & Loeff?
A: A programme through which the firm shares its AI knowledge with students. It started with signals picked up by campus recruiters. Students asked how the firm deals with AI, what AI means for the sector and whether they will still have a job. Where universities are sometimes hesitant about using AI, Tim says, Loyens & Loeff deliberately invests in AI skills. In a panel discussion, managing partner Harmen said he wants students who want to experiment and are not afraid to make mistakes.
Q: Which classic qualities still matter in a law firm?
A: Drive, above all. Loyens & Loeff sits in the top segment of the market, and that asks, in Tim's words, for someone who is almost obsessed with the subject matter. He does not deny that this is not a nine-to-five culture, but he prefers to talk about work life integration. A workout during office hours when things are quiet, and being available the moment a client calls. The first few years are decisive, because you do not reach a world championship without training. People stay, he says, not for the barista coffee but for the room to develop.
Q: What does the current selection process at Loyens & Loeff look like?
A: It starts early and it is still fairly traditional. The firm makes contact early in a degree through career fairs and office visits, and many students do a two-month internship with a practice group. Some stay on as working students for one to three days a week. When they apply, the firm looks at academic background, internships, internship reviews and grades, followed by a classic assessment that is mainly an intelligence test. Around 65 to 75 percent of the people hired had previously interned or worked at Loyens & Loeff.
Q: How is Loyens & Loeff rebuilding its recruitment process?
A: From a blank sheet, together with talent, L&D and innovation. The starting point is not tweaking the existing process but creating a greenfield situation. The biggest change is at the gate. That funnel opens as wide as possible, because the firm believes it is unknowingly missing talent by filtering hard on grades and internship experience. Someone who worked thirty hours a week to pay for their studies and scored a 6.5 as a result may in fact be showing drive, Tim says. A practical case and a competency-based assessment follow.
Q: What is a technologist at a law firm?
A: A new profile between the subject matter and the technology. It is not the practising lawyer or tax adviser, and not the hardcore IT specialist or data and AI expert either, but someone who translates the opportunities colleagues see within a practice or expertise group into solutions that actually work. People like this are already in the organisation, the firm simply never recruited for them on purpose. They also need to be assessed differently, because a legal case study is one they will certainly not pass.
