Legal talent acquisition for the teams behind the business.

Generalist talent-acquisition teams are excellent at volume hiring, but senior legal hires are low-volume, high-consequence and largely passive — the strongest general counsel, compliance and legal-operations leaders are not applying to job boards. We map the whole market, approach the people who are not looking, and assess the legal substance behind a résumé: the deals run, the regulators faced, the team actually built. For a first-GC hire, a compliance build-out or a confidential succession, that specialist reach is the difference between a shortlist and the right shortlist. See how we run a search.

Yes — the first-GC hire is one of the most consequential decisions a scaling company makes, and one we run often. We start with what the business actually needs from the role (commercial partner, risk owner, board adviser, or all three), benchmark the market and compensation, and present a short field of candidates who can build the function rather than merely manage today's contracts. Read our guide to building and scaling in-house legal teams, then explore in-house & general counsel recruiting.

It is the first question we work through with you, because hiring the wrong shape of resource is as costly as hiring the wrong person. A permanent hire is the answer when the work is standing and strategic — a function the board will rely on for years. When the need is a defined project (an acquisition, a remediation, a parental or restructuring gap) or the budget for a permanent leader is not yet justified, interim or fractional counsel covers it without a long-term commitment. Demand for flexible senior legal talent has grown sharply (Axiom, 2024–25), and the alternative-legal-services market has expanded at roughly 18% a year (Thomson Reuters / Georgetown, 2025). We can run a permanent in-house & GC search and place interim & fractional counsel in parallel, so the work is covered while the right permanent leader is found.

We do. Alongside general and commercial counsel, we place chief compliance officers, MLROs, regulatory counsel and risk leadership — people who can withstand supervisory scrutiny and brief a board with credibility. With regulatory change cited among the top concerns of chief legal officers (ACC 2025), demand for proven compliance leaders is intense. Explore compliance & regulatory recruitment.

Yes. For a departure, a transaction surge or parental leave, we deploy interim and fractional counsel — including fractional general counsel — on fixed-term or open-ended terms, often within days rather than weeks. It is frequently the more cost-effective route for a defined three-to-six-month gap, with no permanent headcount commitment. Explore interim & fractional legal talent.

We bring market data to the table before the number is set. BarkerGilmore's 2025 In-House Counsel Compensation Report — drawn from nearly 3,000 in-house lawyers — shows how sharply the right benchmark moves with company stage and ownership, with top public-company GC compensation well above private, PE-backed and non-profit equivalents. BarkerGilmore also reports median base increases moderating to 2.5% in 2025 (from 4.4% in 2024), which means equity, mandate and culture — not base alone — increasingly decide who accepts. We calibrate the package to your stage, the candidate's current position and the seat's strategic weight. See our salary & compensation benchmarks.

We recruit for companies at every stage — venture-backed start-ups making a first legal hire, scale-ups building a department, and established public and private companies refreshing leadership — across financial services, technology, energy, healthcare, life sciences and regulated industries generally. Searches run across the United States and internationally; see our USA and international coverage.

Companies engage us on a retained or exclusive basis for senior and confidential mandates; we agree scope and terms in writing before any approach is made. Every search is run with complete discretion — candidates and the market learn only what you authorise. To discuss a specific mandate, start a confidential conversation.