The best legal hires
start with
I’m not looking to move.
Legal search for firms and companies where one wrong hire costs too much.
Hiring a general counsel, a compliance chief, or the team around them.
We run retained, confidential searches for the senior legal seats inside a company.
Where to start
- Retained search
General counsel search
Retained search for a general counsel. Of 52 GC and CLO searches since 2017, the average shortlist is 24 days and the median accepted offer is 11 weeks. A venture-backed SaaS company in California hired its first general counsel on day 24, with an accepted offer in week 10. The hire was still in post at 24 months.
General counsel search - Retained search
Chief legal officer search
Chief legal officer seats are in the same 52 GC and CLO searches since 2017: 24 days to a shortlist on average, 11 weeks median to an accepted offer. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired its successor general counsel on that clock, from a shortlist of four on day 24, with an accepted offer in week 11.
Chief legal officer search - 2026 proxy season
General counsel pay report
Median total compensation of $4.76 million for sitting general counsel who are named executive officers at 236 of the largest US-listed companies, 2026 proxy season. Sartori & Partners analysis of SEC proxy filings. It describes large-cap total pay, not a base salary.
Open the pay report
- 01
General counsel & chief legal officer
A first GC, a successor to a sitting one, or a CLO for a listed group.
First general counselGC successionChief legal officerIn-house counsel search
- 02
Deputy GC & head of legal
The second chair who runs the function day to day, and the governance seat beside it.
- 03
Chief compliance officer
A compliance leader the audit committee trusts and a regulator believes.
- 04
Privacy & AI-governance counsel
CPO and DPO seats, and counsel for AI products and model risk.
- 05
- 06
Interim & fractional GC
Cover for a leave, a transaction, or the months before a full-time hire.
- 07
Post-merger legal integration
Counsel who merge entities, contracts and legal teams after close, including under a PE owner.
Before you brief a search
Hiring guides & data
- How to Run a General Counsel Search
- How Much a General Counsel Costs
- General Counsel Reference Checks
- Chief Legal Officer vs General Counsel
- Promote the Deputy or Hire a New GC
- Hiring a Chief Compliance Officer
- When to Hire Privacy and AI Counsel
- Hiring a Head of Legal Operations
- Interim vs Permanent In-House Counsel
- Hiring In-House Counsel for PE-Backed Companies
- Which Legal Work Belongs In-House
- In-House Search Fees, Guarantee and Off-Limits
- How Companies Hire a General Counsel
- General Counsel First 100 Days
- General Counsel Job Description
- How to Hire a Chief Legal Officer
- General Counsel Equity at Private Companies
- General Counsel Appointments Tracker
- General Counsel Pay at the Largest US-Listed Companies
A search that begins from the whole market.
Most firms recruit from the candidates who raise their hand. We start from the entire field — mapped, maintained and qualified — then apply judgment to it.
A specialist, not a generalist.
We provide specialized executive search and recruitment for the legal sector and nothing else — for law firms and corporations, across the United States and internationally.
That focus is the point. A generalist sees a résumé; we read a practice. We know which book of business is portable and which is borrowed, which counsel is ready for the GC chair and which compliance leader can stand in front of a regulator. The result is a shortlist that is shorter, and right.
Three sides of every search.
We sit between the firms and companies that hire and the senior lawyers who move — and we are trusted by all three.
- I
For Law Firms
Lateral partners, practice-group lift-outs, associates and leadership — sourced from the whole market, not a rented list.
Hire for your firm - II
For Companies
General counsel, compliance and legal-operations leaders for legal departments at every stage of scale.
Build your legal team - III
For Candidates
A trusted partner for the most important move of your career. We open doors that are not on any job board.
Explore a move
Eight disciplines. One standard of rigor.
From a lateral partner move to a first general counsel, each search is run on the same evidence-led method.
- 01 Lateral Partner Recruiting Private lateral and practice-group moves for US law firms.
- 02 Associate & Attorney Recruiting Associates and counsel, matched on practice depth and trajectory.
- 03 In-House & General Counsel GC, deputy GC and senior counsel for companies of every stage.
- 04 Compliance & Regulatory Chief compliance officers, regulatory and risk leadership.
- 05 Legal Operations Legal-ops, legal-tech and the function behind the function.
- 06 Interim & Contract Counsel On-demand legal capacity, deployed at the speed of the matter.
- 07 Law Firm Management Managing partners, COO, CFO and the legal C-suite.
- 08 Board & Advisory Non-executive directors and governance appointments.
Every practice, read as a practice.
We recruit across the full range of legal practice — and go deep within each. The areas we cover most:
The industry behind the legal need.
A regulatory matter in fintech is not a regulatory matter in healthcare. We recruit with the sector in view, not just the practice.
- 01 Technology, Media & Telecom
- 02 Financial Services & Banking
- 03 Private Capital & Asset Management
- 04 Insurance
- 05 Healthcare & Life Sciences
- 06 Energy, Power & Cleantech
- 07 Real Estate, Construction & Infrastructure
- 08 Manufacturing, Industrials & Mobility
- 09 Consumer, Retail & Hospitality
- 10 Public Sector, Education & Nonprofit
- 11 Professional & Business Services
Local intelligence, on a global map.
From New York and the US metros to London, the Gulf and Asia — we run searches where our clients build, with intelligence drawn from each market.
Proprietary market intelligence, applied with judgment.
Data finds the names; experienced consultants make the calls that matter.
Our in-house intelligence engine builds and maintains a living map of the legal market — firms, practices, movements and signals — so a search starts from the full field, not a stale database.
- 01 100% market mapping, not list-shopping
- 02 Passive candidates approached privately
- 03 Book-of-business and conflict diligence
- 04 Evidence over instinct, judgment over data
Depth where practice meets specialism and place.
Our market map runs three axes deep — the practice, the specialism within it, and the place it sits in — so a search can be as precise as the mandate.
A few of the lanes we go deep on
Confidential and published openings, live.
A curated, anonymised board of partner, in-house, compliance and legal-operations roles — many never advertised elsewhere.
Data the market quotes.
Salary benchmarks, lateral-movement data, hiring guides and our flagship reports — published openly, because useful beats gated.
Start a conversation
The right hire begins with a conversation.
Whether you are building a team or weighing a move, we listen first. No obligation.