Fendercare Marine set about finding a head of legal in Norwich, to replace an outgoing member of staff.
Fendercare is a world-leading provider of high quality products and services supplied to the commercial marine, naval, offshore oil and gas and renewable energy industries. It is a subsidiary of the James Fisher and Sons plc group of companies, a client of ours in the North West with little prior experience of recruiting lawyers in East Anglia, let alone a head of legal.
The main challenge was the location. Recruiting people for head of legal roles in Norfolk can be difficult since it is a very small legal market, with very few commercial law firms, let alone in-house legal teams. Being in East Anglia, it is also comparatively remote from other major commercial legal centres in the UK. So, the pool of potential head of legal lawyers was understandably quite small.
In such circumstances head of legal candidates are just as likely to come from another part of the country as the local legal community. Therefore, whilst we are familiar with the local legal market, the recommended approach was advertised search and selection, in order to reach the widest possible target market.
This particular head of legal role was advertised in the principal online and print legal recruitment media, at the same time as the role was discussed with existing contacts of ours in and around East Anglia, in order to identified by additional research and search activities.
Over 40 interested parties and applicants had been considered from a variety of backgrounds to produce an initial shortlist of 7 head of legal candidates offering a combination of the core skills and experience required. Out of the initial shortlist, 6 candidates were recommended for first stage interview, with one who stood out from the others and was ultimately appointed.
Type: Head of Legal sought for group subsidiary.
Consultation: a full brief from Group General Counsel of parent company.
Methodology: Advertised search and selection.
Location: Norwich, Norfolk.
Appointee: Experienced commercial lawyer returning to work in Norfolk.
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