Last week, I attended a half day LMA program in DC on The Client Experience. It was an excellent program, and the section on having competitive intelligence talent to support your BD team really resonated. To be honest, I am surprised at how few law marketing/BD departments have Research Analysts and/or Competitive Intelligence professionals. Gina … Continued
This past summer, my 15-year-old daughter, Arcadia, spent two weeks at the Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute. This is a program sponsored by Eileen Fisher (the clothing designer) for young women, ages 15-18. It offers all sorts of programming and speakers to help high school girls develop vision for their lives and the courage to accomplish … Continued
Over the past 20+ years we have placed close to 800 professionals, and we have seen firsthand how imperative it is that the professional’s values and the firm’s values are aligned. Recently, I have had long conversations with two senior level professionals whom I consider “superstars” in their fields. They both left their firms after many … Continued
Earlier this summer we sent an Industry “Snapshot” Survey to Heads of Marketing/BD at top law firms. We were especially interested in capturing the current structure of departments (i.e. BD vs. Mar/Comm), size of department vs. firm size, and where firms are investing in additional talent. We’ve recently finished the analysis and it provided several … Continued
We are experiencing a massive talent shortage in law firm recruiting and marketing, especially at the junior and mid-levels. The reason this is happening is two-fold: Firms are actively hiring for the first time in years. For example, we have received 50 jobs during the past 3 months. Also, based on our most recent survey, … Continued
We have been working on an exclusive search for the head of Marketing/BD for an L.A. boutique and it has been a fascinating process. Why? Because often what a Firm thinks they want and what they need are not necessarily the same! Whenever we begin a Director/CMO search, we interview the Executive Director who is … Continued
This month marks 30 years since I graduated from college. When I think back to my first job, there were so many things that I did not know about how to be a valuable employee. We recently interviewed a number of new grads—some stand out as “ready for the work world” and some do not. … Continued
We often see “professional presentation” mentioned as a requirement on job descriptions, especially for junior level candidates. For more senior positions, “inspires confidence” and “has professional presence” is often included. I have pondered what is meant by “professional presentation,” and here are some of the things mentioned when I asked clients for specifics: Able to … Continued
I found Frank Bruni’s very well researched book, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, very compelling. In it, he discusses why going to an elite school does not guarantee success and much of what Bruni says is what I have seen in my 25+ years as a recruiter for top law firms. I … Continued
I met with a candidate last week who was referred to me by a law firm professional I have known for more than 20 years. This candidate was looking to re-enter the workforce after being home for 15+ years. She had a successful career as a Law Firm Administrator and left the industry at a … Continued