In-house Litigation Lawyer Recruitment Project
Background
Our client is a world-leading commercial vehicle manufacturer, with over 11,000 employees globally and a commitment to shaping the future of sustainable transportation. The business provides transport solutions in the medium to heavy-duty commercial vehicle sector in more than 130 countries around the world.
At the time of the project, the Group had c160 lawyers internationally and had trebled the size of its legal function over the previous 15 years. This additional role, for a senior in-house litigation lawyer in the UK, had been created as a direct consequence of an earlier European Commission decision in the 2016 Trucks Cartel case.
The role had been created to help manage the “follow-on” damages claims made by hauliers and other customers, in the courts of member states, following the earlier European settlement.
Following an internal recommendation from elsewhere in the client’s group of companies, Florit Legal was retained exclusively to find a senior commercial dispute resolution lawyer to be based in either the Midlands or London.
Challenge
The most common profile for the recruitment of senior in-house lawyers is a corporate and commercial generalist with predominantly non-contentious legal experience. Since litigation tends to be an infrequent distressed purchase, the conduct of commercial litigation is invariably outsourced to external law firms.
Since the occurrence of commercial disputes will (hopefully) be rare in most companies, the number of times we are specifically asked to hire a senior litigation lawyer is low. Most lawyers understand this and appreciate it is a rare occurrence.
Rarer still is a client requirement for a senior litigation lawyer with some experience in competition law. This is a narrow field and makes for an extremely narrow talent pool.
The reporting line, into another EU country, made it all the more important to hire someone who presented the correct behavioural fit to be able to work autonomously and at salary level more commensurate with the Midlands than with London.
Solution
We initially identified two classes of individual that would be a suitable fit for the role: Firstly, all in-house litigation lawyers working or living within a certain radius of the client’s offices in the Midlands. Secondly, all dispute resolution lawyers currently working in private practice but with some previous in-house legal experience, whether directly or via a client secondment. Approaches were made to all of these whilst simultaneously advertising the role via the principal online channels, for wider exposure of the exclusive mandate we had been given.
After each of four shortlisted candidate’s behavioural assessments, interviews and presentations, an outstanding top-tier law firm candidate with extensive litigation experience and a significant in-house secondment was appointed.
