Case study · For companies
A deputy general counsel search for a PE-backed industrial group in Houston
The sponsor needed a deputy who had already run a carve-out and could live a public-company cadence. Shortlist in 18 days. Accepted offer in week 8.
Carve-out first. Public-company cadence second. One deputy.
A PE-backed industrial group in Houston needed a deputy GC who had already done the ugly work, not a plant counsel with a new title.
A PE-backed industrial group in Houston hired a Deputy General Counsel on an exclusive search. The company had been carved out of a larger parent. The next chapter was a public-company reporting cadence if the sponsor exited by listing. The shortlist arrived in 18 days. The accepted offer closed in week 8. The file is one of 47 deputy GC / Head of Legal placements inside 230+ in-house and corporate placements since 2017.
PE mid-market portfolio companies typically run three to six in-house lawyers. The sitting GC could not also run the carve-out clean-up, the commercial load, and a listing cadence. The deputy was the difference between a legal function that held and a function that became a closing condition. Talent acquisition had never hired this seat. Outside counsel had done the carve-out. They were the last people who should have been asked to find their successor's deputy.
- 18 days
- ShortlistFaster than the deputy programme average of 21 days (n=47).
- Sartori corporate track record, 2017-2026
- Week 8
- Accepted offerFaster than the deputy programme median of 10 weeks.
- Sartori corporate track record, 2017-2026
- 47
- Deputy GC / Head of Legal files in the 230+ in-house bookThis search is one of them.
- Sartori corporate track record, 2017-2026
The sitting GC was not shopped. The deputy still had to be found.
Houston industrials are a small enough legal market that a posted "Deputy GC, PE-backed industrial" is a press release. The sponsor wanted silence. The sitting GC was staying. This was not a succession. It was a load-bearing hire under a GC who was already in the carve-out dust. A rumour that the company was "building out legal" would have been read by buyers, by unions, and by the parent from which the company had just been cut.
Compensation sat in the deputy / Head of Legal band: $220,000-$380,000 cash, not a mid-cap listed GC package. PE-backed portfolio GCs run $280,000-$420,000 base with a 25-50% bonus. We kept those two seats apart on the scorecard so the deputy hire did not become an accidental GC search. Stage bands are on the 2026 general counsel salary guide.
The internal talent team knew industrial operations. It did not know which sitting deputies had actually run a carve-out — TSA exits, stranded contracts, a clean team, a sponsor board that wants a one-page legal pack. Posting would have drawn plant counsel. The map had to be of people already in PE-backed industrials in Texas and the Gulf, a field in the tens.
The operating partner's other constraint was speed without a leak. A carve-out that still has a TSA clock cannot wait on a 16-week GC search, and it cannot survive a rumour that legal is "being rebuilt." Eighteen days to a shortlist is the point of an exclusive deputy search: fast enough for the TSA, quiet enough for the sponsor. We told them in week 1 that the programme deputy clock is 21 days to shortlist and 10 weeks to offer, and that this file would be run against that envelope, not against a posted role.
Two clocks on one scorecard
Must-have: a carve-out already run. Must-have: a public-company cadence already lived. Either one alone was a no.
Carve-out already done
TSA exits, stranded contracts, employee transfers, a clean team. Not 'M&A exposure' as a slogan.
Public-company cadence
Could live an earnings and disclosure rhythm if the sponsor listed. Had already sat inside one.
Sponsor fluency
A one-page pack a deal partner will read. No 40-page memo culture imported from a parent.
Stay under the GC
A deputy who wants the GC title in six months is a succession leak. This GC was staying.
Exclusive senior in-house terms: 22-28% of first-year cash, 6-month replacement. Off-limits on the client's legal department: 24 months. Fee in the letter before outreach. The sitting GC signed the Mandate Blueprint with the CHRO and the sponsor's operating partner. Three signatures. One scorecard. That is how a deputy search stays a deputy search. Process sits in how we run a search and retained versus contingency legal search.
Sitting deputies at PE-backed industrials, Texas and the Gulf — a field in the tens
We mapped sitting deputy GCs and heads of legal at PE-backed industrial companies in Houston, Dallas, and the Gulf Coast — a field in the tens. The map is a proprietary market map. We do not publish exact totals. A band is enough: everyone who has actually run a carve-out in this corridor can be named. The work is approaching them without telling the corridor you are approaching them.
Outreach was private, blinded, conflicts-checked. Assessment dossiers named the carve-out, the TSA, and the last time the person had written for a securities calendar. We did not send "industrials experience." The shortlist landed in 18 days, inside the deputy programme average of 21 days (n=47). Houston in-house context: in-house counsel recruiting in Houston. Adjacent cover if the carve-out spiked: interim legal talent in Houston.
| Week | Milestone | What the sponsor saw |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mandate Blueprint | Carve-out + listing cadence on one scorecard. Fee letter signed. |
| 1-2 | Map the Gulf industrial field | Sitting deputies at PE-backed industrials — a field in the tens. |
| 2-3 | Private outreach | Blinded. Sitting GC not shopped. No posting. |
| Day 18 | Shortlist | Dossiers naming carve-outs actually run. Programme deputy average: 21 days. |
| 4-7 | Interviews | GC, operating partner, a live TSA exit. Not a case-study theatre. |
| 8 | Accepted offer | First offer. Programme deputy median: 10 weeks. This file: week 8. |
| 9+ | Start, 90-day check | TSA clock and the first sponsor pack. 6-month replacement window running. |
Deputy / Head of Legal replacement is 6 months. Programme offer-acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%.
Source: Sartori & Partners corporate track record, 2017-2026 (this file; deputy GC / Head of Legal n=47).
They treated succession as a confidentiality problem first. Our sitting GC was not shopped. The deputy we appointed had already run a carve-out.
Week 8, first offer, a deputy who had already done the work
- Mandate
- Deputy GC, PE-backed industrial, Houston. Carve-out then public-company cadence. One of 47 deputy / Head of Legal files.
- Shortlist
- 18 days. Programme deputy average: 21 days.
- Accepted offer
- Week 8. Programme deputy median: 10 weeks.
- Cash band
- Deputy / Head of Legal: $220,000-$380,000. Not a portfolio GC package.
- Terms
- Exclusive senior in-house, 22-28% of first-year cash, 6-month replacement.
- Retention
- Programme rates: 97% of placed in-house leaders at 12 months, 91% at 24 months. Not a named-client promise.
The sitting employer counter-offered. In PE-backed industrials that often means a phantom "next GC" promise. We had written "the GC is staying" into the first conversation. The candidate accepted in week 8 on the first offer. Programme offer-acceptance is 96%. We do not attach a named-client retention slogan to the file. Across placed in-house leaders, 97% remain at 12 months.
Client reference
The Houston industrial voice
They treated succession as a confidentiality problem first. Our sitting GC was not shopped. The deputy we appointed had already run a carve-out.
A deputy after a carve-out is a two-clock hire
- Name the carve-out and the listing cadence on the same scorecard. Either one alone hires the wrong deputy.
- Do not shop the sitting GC. Houston industrials will read a posting as a story about the sponsor.
- The field is in the tens. Map sitting deputies at PE-backed industrials. Do not post for plant counsel.
- This file: 18 days to shortlist, week 8 to accepted offer — inside, and faster than, the deputy programme clock (21 days / 10 weeks, n=47).
- Keep deputy cash in the $220,000-$380,000 band. Do not accidentally run a GC search. Retention is a programme rate (97% at 12 months).
Deputy GC, next reads
In-house and general counsel recruiting
Deputy GC and Head of Legal searches under a sitting GC, including PE-backed companies.
Open the GC service pageHow to run a general counsel search
Mandate Blueprint to 90-day check-in on the 24-day / 11-week clock.
Read the 2026 search clockLegal talent for companies
How sponsors, GCs and CHROs brief an exclusive in-house mandate.
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Anonymised corporate files, including this Houston deputy search.
Browse case studiesRelated files: GC succession in Boston medtech, head of legal operations in Austin software, the research programme, and what companies look for in a new general counsel when the comparison is the seat above this one. Houston cover: in-house counsel recruiting in Houston.
Deputy GC, PE industrial Houston: four questions
What makes a deputy GC search different after a PE carve-out?
The hire must have already run a carve-out, then be able to live a public-company cadence if the sponsor's exit is a listing. A commercial deputy who has only done plant-level contracts will drown in a carve-out clean team. A listed-company deputy who has never left a parent will drown in a sponsor board. This Houston file needed both. See in-house counsel recruiting in Houston.
How long did this Houston deputy GC search take?
The shortlist arrived in 18 days and the accepted offer closed in week 8. Programme deputy GC / Head of Legal searches run 21 days to shortlist and 10 weeks to offer (n=47). This file was faster. The seat-by-seat clock is in how to run a general counsel search.
Can the sitting GC's outside counsel just find a deputy?
No: outside counsel still report through the sitting GC and cannot map sitting deputies without starting a rumour. Talent acquisition can post. The people who have run a carve-out are not applying. Confidentiality is the search. A Houston industrial CLO put it: they treated succession as a confidentiality problem first.
What fee and replacement terms apply to a deputy GC search?
Deputy GC and Head of Legal seats run as exclusive senior in-house searches: 22-28% of first-year cash and a 6-month replacement window. GC/CLO/CCO retained searches use 28-33% and 12 months. Off-limits on the client's legal department still run 24 months. Terms are in legal recruitment fees explained.
Start a deputy GC search
If the carve-out is done and the listing is a maybe, hire the deputy who has already lived both.
Exclusive, confidential, fee in the letter. Shortlist in the two-to-three-week band. Sitting GC not shopped.