Legal Search Project: Setting Up a UK Legal Team
Background
This particular legal search project was to set up a small UK legal team from scratch, to support the UK part of an international business – one of the largest dairy companies in the world.
Prior to our involvement, the business had been looking to recruit suitable senior legal counsel for a number of weeks but had unfortunately not managed to fill the roles. We were then recommended to the client, by one of our law firm partner contacts.
The roles were to form part of the client’s long-established global in-house legal team based across four different European states, including the UK, with reporting lines into both the UK business leadership team and the General Counsel, based in the overseas headquarters.
Challenge
The main challenge in endeavouring to set up the new in-house legal team was how to recruit two senior in-house lawyers at a similar PQE-level, simultaneously in one project, with one of them taking on a head of legal role and the other taking up a less senior position from the outset. The outcome of such ‘multiple hire’ projects can sometimes be difficult to predict, without any clear and precise delineation between the two roles.
Solution
A meeting with the client’s key stakeholders allowed us to take a full brief on each role and recommend an appropriate solution designed to fill both roles, at the first attempt.
By dividing up responsibilities in a way that each role required a slightly different set of legal skills, for a different set of responsibilities, it was possible to search from two relatively distinct pools of candidates in the local market and set expectations on seniority and job title at an appropriate level with each of them from the outset.
A legal search assignment and prominent client-branded advertisement in the legal press and online media attracted around 80 candidates onto our long-list with a shortlist of 12, and 2 appointments were made after a 3-stage interview process including behavioural assessments.
Features
Retained search: we placed 2 candidates from our existing network of contacts in established in-house legal teams in the UK.
Speed: the roles were filled within 6 weeks, following a previous unsuccessful attempt by the client.
Appointees: experienced commercial lawyers, both with in-house retail and food sector experience and Top 50 UK commercial law firm training.
