For companies and law firms

Legal search firm: how to choose, and how we work

The letter states the fee, the replacement window and who is off-limits. Outreach starts after that letter exists, not before.

Brief a search How we run a search

01 Direct answer

Hire the firm that will put fee, guarantee and off-limits in the letter.

A company choosing a legal search firm is buying a process, not a stack of names. A law firm choosing one is buying the same letter, on a partner or associate mandate.

Lorenzo Sartori — Founder, Sartori & Partners Published September 30, 2026 — A legal search firm fills one legal seat on retained terms: fee, clock, and off-limits in the letter.

A legal search firm is the retained advisor a company or a law firm hires to fill one legal seat. Sartori & Partners has completed 230+ in-house placements since 2017, of which 38 were general counsel or chief legal officer searches. On those 38 searches the shortlist arrived in 24 days and the median accepted offer in 11 weeks. Offer acceptance was 96 percent. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston accepted a successor general counsel in week 11; the shortlist of four arrived on day 24. The replacement term on a retained general counsel search is 12 months.

The decision is narrower than a directory of legal search firms suggests. Either the firm is exclusive and paid to map the market, or it is one of several firms paid only if a hire sticks. Those are different products. Sartori & Partners takes the first. We do not run contingency searches. The fee is 25-30 percent of total first-year compensation. 30 percent of that fee is paid as a retainer at engagement and kept if the client cancels. The replacement term is 12 months on a retained general counsel, chief legal officer or chief compliance officer search, and 6 months on other in-house searches.

The placed record behind that letter is 230+ in-house placements since 2017. 38 were general counsel or chief legal officer. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96 percent. Of placed in-house leaders, 97 percent were still in post at 12 months and 91 percent at 24 months. 92 percent of retained corporate mandates were completed. The buyer guides are how to choose a legal search firm and retained versus contingency legal search.

Read the letter as four lines, in this order. Line one is exclusivity: one firm, or several. Line two is the fee base: total first-year compensation at 25-30 percent, with 30 percent of that fee paid at engagement and kept if you cancel. Line three is the replacement window: 12 months from the start date on a retained general counsel, chief legal officer or chief compliance officer search, and 6 months on other in-house searches. Line four is off-limits: placed lawyers stay off-limits while they remain in the seat, and the client's legal department stays off-limits for 24 months after the mandate. A legal search firm that leaves any of the four lines blank is asking the buyer to discover the term after a candidate has been called. Sartori & Partners writes all four before outreach. Conflicts are checked in the same week. Outreach stays blind both ways until mutual interest is confirmed in writing, and no CV leaves without written candidate consent.

Model: Retained only. No contingency. Exclusive from the letter.
Fee: 25-30% of total first-year compensation. Retainer is 30% of the fee, paid at engagement, kept if the client cancels.
Clock: GC and CLO shortlist in 24 days; median accepted offer in 11 weeks; range 8-16 weeks (n=38, 2017-2026).
Guarantee: 12 months on retained GC, CLO and CCO searches. 6 months on other in-house searches.
Off-limits: Placed lawyers are off-limits while they stay. A client's legal department is off-limits for 24 months after a mandate.
Record: 230+ in-house placements since 2017, of which 38 were GC or CLO. 96% offer acceptance. 97% still in post at 12 months.

02 Selection criteria

Six terms. Legal search firms that will not write them down are out.

Ask these before a credentials meeting. A firm that answers in adjectives has not answered.

01
Exclusive, or not. A confidential general counsel seat, a successor while the incumbent still sits, or a lateral partner with a book cannot be worked by three firms at once. Retained means one firm, one map, one off-limits list. Contingency means whoever sends a CV first. If you are still choosing the model, stop on retained versus contingency legal search and then use how to choose a legal search firm as the question list.
02
Who is actually mapped. The useful names are sitting counsel who are not looking. Our market map is 1,480,000+ lawyers. That is the map, not a census of a city and not a count of jobs. A shortlist drawn from people already in market is a different, cheaper product. Ask what share of the last shortlist was approached, not found on a board.
03
What the percentage applies to. A fee on base salary underprices a package that is bonus, equity and long-term incentive. Ours applies to total first-year compensation, at 25-30 percent. 30 percent of the fee is the retainer. Ask the other firm to define "total" in the letter, including what happens to the retainer if you cancel.
04
When the guarantee starts and what it covers. A window that ends on the start date is not a replacement term. Ours is 12 months from start on retained GC, CLO and CCO searches, and 6 months on other in-house searches. Ask whether a replacement is a new search or a refund, and whether a counter-offer inside the window counts.
05
Who is off-limits, in writing, before the first call. We never approach a lawyer we placed for as long as that person stays. We do not recruit from a client's legal department for 24 months after a mandate. Conflicts are checked before outreach. A verbal assurance is not a policy. The full mechanics are in in-house search fees, guarantee and off-limits.
06
A record with a base and a window. Ask for placements, acceptance and retention, each with the count and the years. Ours: 230+ in-house placements since 2017; 96 percent offer acceptance on corporate mandates; 97 percent of placed in-house leaders still in post at 12 months and 91 percent at 24 months; 92 percent of retained corporate mandates completed; 68 percent of corporate mandates from repeat clients or referrals. A case you can call is role, sector and city — never a logo. One published case is a NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston.

03 Retained versus contingency

Retained buys a map. Contingency buys a race.

Retained

One firm. Paid to start. Exclusive. The work is the market that is not looking: a sitting deputy who could be a first general counsel, a successor who cannot be told the incumbent is leaving, a partner whose book has to be tested before anyone at the current firm hears a rumor. The retainer funds that work whether or not you hire. We work this way on every search. The guide that owns the comparison is retained versus contingency legal search.

Contingency

Paid only if a presented candidate is hired. Usually non-exclusive. Rational for a defined, replaceable role where speed to a CV matters more than coverage, and where the company already has a pipeline. It is a poor fit for a general counsel, a chief compliance officer, or a lateral partner. We will say so, and we will not take the file on contingency. A company that wants that model should use a contingency recruiter, not this firm.

Association of Corporate Counsel data explains why the officer seat is not a volume hire. In the ACC 2026 Chief Legal Officers Survey key findings, published 29 January 2026, 63 percent of 1,049 chief legal officers expected headcount to stay stable, while use of outside counsel stood at 48 percent. The search, when it happens, is one seat. A race among contingency firms does not map it.

04 Fee and guarantee

25-30 percent of total first-year compensation. Retainer 30 percent of the fee. 12 months on a GC search.

The fee, the retainer and the replacement window are written before the first call. Other legal search firms price differently. Ask them to put the same three terms in their letter.

Sartori & Partners retained terms for company searches. Current engagement letter.
Term	What the letter says	Applies to
Fee	25-30% of total first-year compensation	Every retained search
Retainer	30% of the fee, paid at engagement, kept if the client cancels	Every retained search
Balance	Stated in the letter. No published second installment date.	Every retained search
Replacement	12 months	Retained GC, CLO and CCO
Replacement	6 months	Other in-house searches
Interim	Day-rate or monthly retainer; days billed credited against a later retained fee	Interim and fractional, separate from the 230+
Model	Retained only. No contingency.	Companies and law firms

Total first-year compensation is the base the percentage multiplies. A quote on base salary alone is a different fee. Interim engagements are not inside the 230+ permanent placements.

Source: Sartori & Partners engagement terms, owner confirmation 29 September 2026.

On the 38 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist arrived in 24 days and the median accepted offer in 11 weeks, inside a range of 8-16 weeks. That clock is what the retainer is buying: a written scorecard in week 1, a map in weeks 1-2, and a shortlist a board can interview. It is not a promise that every seat closes in week 11. The corporate average to shortlist, across seats, is 21 days. Senior and specialist counsel, 96 of the 230+ placements, shortlist in 18 days with a median accepted offer in 8 weeks. Budget the GC clock when the chair sits on the interviews. The first meeting is a scope, not a presentation. Bring the reporting line, the cash and equity the board will approve, the names already in process, and the departments that must stay off-limits. If the work is two or three days a week, the right first step is fractional cover: median start in 7 days across 60+ interim and fractional engagements, with days billed credited against a later retained fee.

Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96 percent. That is the figure to set next to a guarantee. A 12-month replacement term matters if the hire leaves. It does not replace a scorecard. 97 percent of placed in-house leaders were still in post at 12 months, and 91 percent at 24 months. Read the fee mechanics in full in in-house search fees, guarantee and off-limits and the model choice in retained versus contingency legal search.

05 Conflicts and off-limits

The off-limits list is a commercial term. It is not a courtesy.

A general counsel will not brief a firm that recruited from the department last quarter. A managing partner will not brief a firm that is already in the partnership on another matter.

Before any name is called

Conflicts are checked before outreach. The client's existing panel, the incumbent, and any live mandate for a competitor of the candidate's employer are identified in the Mandate Blueprint. If a conflict blocks the search, we say so in week 1, not after a shortlist.

Lawyers we have placed

We never approach a lawyer we placed for as long as that lawyer stays in the seat. The protection does not expire on a calendar. It expires when the lawyer leaves. That rule is why a placed general counsel will take a later call about a deputy.

The client's own department

We do not recruit from a client's legal department for 24 months after a mandate. The window is in the letter with the fee. It covers the department, not a vague 'we'll avoid your team.' A second search inside the 24 months is scoped so it does not harvest the first.

What the candidate is told

Outreach is blind both ways until mutual interest is confirmed in writing. No CV leaves us without written candidate consent. An NDA is available on request. A successor search does not become a rumor about the sitting general counsel because a recruiter needed a warmer introduction.

The same four rules apply to a law-firm mandate. A partner conversation is not permission to call the rest of the practice. The published partner-side record is 2,600+ partner conversations. It is not a placement count, and it is not a license to work a partnership on contingency. Process detail is on how we run a search.

06 How a search runs

Week 1 is a letter. Day 24 is a shortlist, on a GC search.

Week 1 Mandate Blueprint
Seat, reporting line, compensation, conflicts, off-limits, fee. Written. No calls before this exists.
Weeks 1-2 Total-market mapping
Sitting counsel in the sector and the city. The map is 1,480,000+ lawyers. A software GC search maps software deputies, not advertised general counsel at unrelated issuers.
Weeks 2-4 Private outreach
Blind both ways until mutual interest. No CV leaves without written consent. NDA on request.
Day 24 Shortlist dossiers
On the 38 GC and CLO searches, the shortlist arrives in 24 days. Assessment dossiers. Every name can sit the interview the board will actually hold.
Weeks 5-11 Interviews and offer
References, notice, equity, the replacement term. Median accepted offer at week 11. Range 8-16 weeks from the blueprint.
After start Close and 90-day checks
Onboarding and 90-day check-ins. 97 percent of placed in-house leaders still in post at 12 months; 91 percent at 24 months.

A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston ran the successor search on this clock: shortlist of four on day 24, accepted offer in week 11, 12-month replacement term in the letter. The file is general counsel succession, NASDAQ-listed medtech, Boston. The method write-up is how we run a search.

07 What we do

Company seats are the record. Law-firm mandates use the same letter.

Founded in 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori. International legal executive search. The 230+ in-house placements since 2017 break down by seat, not by slogan.

General counsel and chief legal officer

38 GC and CLO placements since 2017. Shortlist in 24 days. Median accepted offer in 11 weeks. Includes a first legal officer and a confidential successor.

In-house search 02

Deputy general counsel and Head of Legal

47 deputy and Head of Legal placements inside the 230+. The second chair is not a scaled-down chief legal officer specification.

Deputy GC search 03

Compliance leadership

41 compliance and regulatory leadership placements: chief compliance officer, MLRO, head of sanctions, DPO and chief privacy officer.

Compliance search 04

Senior and specialist counsel

96 senior and specialist in-house counsel. Shortlist in 18 days; median accepted offer in 8 weeks. The add-on after the officer is in place.

Specialist counsel 05

Legal operations

12 legal-operations placements. A thin pool. We say so when the brief asks for a function the company does not yet have the volume to support.

Legal operations 06

Interim and fractional

60+ interim and fractional engagements, counted separately from the 230+. Median 7 days from first call to start. Days billed credited against a later retained fee.

Interim counsel

Named company searches sit under that breakdown: first general counsel, general counsel succession, fractional general counsel, chief compliance officer, chief privacy officer and DPO, private-equity portfolio legal hiring, corporate secretary and post-merger legal integration. The company front door is legal hiring for companies.

Law firms brief a different seat and the same commercial terms. Lateral partner recruiting, associate recruiting and law firm management are retained. The published partner-side figure is 2,600+ partner conversations. We do not turn that into a placement claim. The firm front door is hiring for law firms. If the question is which model fits the partner move, start with how to choose a legal search firm.

08 Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston

Six cities companies ask about. Wage context is public. The search terms are not local.

A legal search firm in Los Angeles is the same letter as a legal search firm in Houston. The bench and the cash are not the same.

Lawyers held about 863,700 jobs in the United States in 2025, 52 percent of them in legal services, and the median annual wage was $159,670 in May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Lawyers, last modified 27 August 2026). Employment is projected to grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 28,700 openings a year. Those wage figures do not cover self-employed lawyers or partners of unincorporated businesses. They are not a general counsel package, and they are not a partner draw. Our market map remains 1,480,000+ lawyers; the Bureau count is jobs, not that map.

The metropolitan medians are for lawyers (SOC 23-1011) in the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, as published by O*NET OnLine (site updated 25 August 2026). Corporate mandates have run in 23 countries and 41 cities. Los Angeles opened as a California hub in 2024, with San Francisco. Houston and Dallas opened as the Texas hubs in 2024. Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago are markets we search. They are not hubs, and we do not publish a street address for them.

Median annual wage, lawyers, May 2025. Six metros companies ask a legal search firm to cover.
City	Metropolitan area	Median annual wage	In-house search
Los Angeles	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$194,410	In-house recruiting in Los Angeles
Philadelphia	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$170,660	In-house recruiting in Philadelphia
Dallas	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$168,510	In-house recruiting in Dallas
Chicago	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	$165,660	In-house recruiting in Chicago
United States	National, all metros	$159,670	In-house and general counsel recruiting
Houston	Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$157,980	In-house recruiting in Houston
Atlanta	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$138,210	In-house recruiting in Atlanta

OEWS medians exclude self-employed lawyers and partners of unincorporated businesses. Do not use a metro median as a general counsel base or a partner draw. The U.S. median of $159,670 sits between the Chicago median and the Houston median.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025, SOC 23-1011, via O*NET OnLine local wages (site updated 25 August 2026); national median also in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, Lawyers, last modified 27 August 2026.

Location pages, separate from the in-house search files: Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston. A first legal officer in any of them is a first general counsel search, not a different fee.

09 Proof

230+ in-house placements since 2017. 38 of them general counsel or chief legal officer.

230+: In-house placements since 2017.38 of them GC or CLO.; Sartori & Partners
24 days: To shortlist, GC and CLO.Median accepted offer, week 11. n=38.; Sartori & Partners
96%: Offer acceptance.Corporate mandates. 92% of retained corporate mandates completed.; Sartori & Partners
12 mo: Replacement on retained GC, CLO and CCO searches.6 months on other in-house searches.; Sartori & Partners

Case

Successor general counsel, NASDAQ-listed medtech, Boston

Medtech · NASDAQ-listed · Boston

General counsel successionRead the case study

Situation: The board needed a successor while the sitting general counsel remained. The file could not be advertised, and the department could not learn the search from a recruiter.
Approach: Blind process. The 12-month replacement term was in the letter before outreach. Conflicts and the off-limits list were checked before anyone was called.
Outcome: Shortlist of four on day 24. Accepted offer in week 11. The 12-month retention check held. One of 38 GC and CLO placements since 2017.

Timeline: Shortlist day 24; accepted offer week 11.

Client references

What the buyer said

The shortlist arrived in just over three weeks and every name could already sit with our board. The person we hired is still in post two years later.

General Counsel NASDAQ-listed medtech · Boston

Fee, replacement window and off-limits were in the letter before they called anyone. That is the only way I will sign a search firm. The hire accepted on the first offer.

CFO London-headquartered private-credit manager · London

68 percent of corporate mandates come from repeat clients or referrals. That is the figure a general counsel should ask every legal search firm to match with its own base and window. The parent mandate for company seats is in-house and general counsel recruiting. The umbrella page for who a recruiter may approach is legal recruiters.

10 Related

Read the letter, then the seat.

How to choose a legal search firm

The buyer's questions: model, fee, exclusivity, and what a shortlist is supposed to contain.

Read the buying guide

Retained versus contingency

When a company or a law firm should pay a retainer, and when a contingency model is the wrong tool.

Compare the models

Fees, guarantee, off-limits

The in-house letter: percentage, retainer, replacement window and the 24-month department rule.

Read the fee guide

In-house and general counsel

The company mandate: GC, CLO, deputy and specialist counsel, on retained terms.

Company mandate

First general counsel

The builder seat, when the company has outgrown outside counsel managed ad hoc.

First GC search

For companies

General counsel, compliance, legal operations and interim under one corporate desk.

Company hub

Legal search firm — questions from the buyer

What is a legal search firm?

A legal search firm is retained by a company or a law firm to fill one legal seat: a general counsel, a chief legal officer, a deputy, a chief compliance officer, a lateral partner, or a specialist counsel. The hiring organization pays. Sartori & Partners works retained only. Of 230+ in-house placements since 2017, 38 were general counsel or chief legal officer. On those 38 searches the shortlist arrived in 24 days and the median accepted offer in 11 weeks. The comparison of models is in retained versus contingency legal search.

How should a company choose among legal search firms?

Read the engagement letter before you compare logos. Six terms decide it: exclusive retained coverage on a confidential seat; a map of sitting counsel rather than advertised CVs; a fee stated as a percentage of total first-year compensation; a replacement window with a start date; an off-limits list that names the client's legal department; and a completion record you can check. Our fee is 25-30 percent of total first-year compensation, with 30 percent of the fee paid as a retainer at engagement. The questions to ask any firm are in how to choose a legal search firm.

Should a general counsel search be retained or contingency?

Retained, when the seat is senior, occupied, or cannot be advertised. Contingency pays only on a hire and is usually non-exclusive, so several firms can shop the same name. That is the wrong structure for a successor general counsel or a lateral partner. We do not run contingency searches. If the role is straightforward and already has an internal pipeline, we will say a retained search is the wrong tool. Read retained versus contingency legal search before you sign either letter.

What fee and guarantee should the letter state?

The fee is 25-30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation. A retainer of 30 percent of the fee is paid at engagement and kept if the client cancels. The balance timing is in the letter; we do not publish a second installment date. The replacement term is 12 months on retained general counsel, chief legal officer and chief compliance officer searches, and 6 months on other in-house searches. Interim work is a day-rate or a monthly retainer, and days billed credited against a later retained fee. Detail: in-house search fees, guarantee and off-limits.

What is your conflict and off-limits policy?

Conflicts are checked before outreach. We never approach a lawyer we placed for as long as that lawyer stays in the seat. We do not recruit from a client's legal department for 24 months after a mandate. Both rules go in the letter with the fee. Outreach is blind both ways until mutual interest is confirmed in writing. No CV leaves us without written candidate consent. An NDA is available on request. A firm that will not write the off-limits list before the first call is not the firm to hire.

Do you run searches in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and Houston?

Yes. Corporate mandates have run in 23 countries and 41 cities. Los Angeles is a California hub opened in 2024. Houston and Dallas are the Texas hubs, also opened in 2024. Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago are markets we search; they are not hubs, and we do not describe them as offices. City files: Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and Houston.

Do you search for law firms as well as companies?

Yes. Most of the placed record is in-house: 230+ placements since 2017. Law-firm work is a separate retained file — lateral partner recruiting, associate recruiting and law firm management. The partner-side record we publish is 2,600+ partner conversations. We do not publish a partner placement count, and we do not run those mandates on contingency. The company hub is legal hiring for companies; the firm hub is hiring for law firms.

Sources

Clean external sources cited on this page.

Sources

7 references

ACC 2026 Chief Legal Officers Survey — key findings (published 29 January 2026) acc.com ↗
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook, Lawyers (last modified 27 August 2026) bls.gov ↗
O*NET OnLine — Lawyers wages, California, BLS OEWS 2025 (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim) onetonline.org ↗
O*NET OnLine — Lawyers wages, Texas, BLS OEWS 2025 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) onetonline.org ↗
O*NET OnLine — Lawyers wages, Pennsylvania, BLS OEWS 2025 (Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington) onetonline.org ↗
O*NET OnLine — Lawyers wages, Illinois, BLS OEWS 2025 (Chicago-Naperville-Elgin) onetonline.org ↗
O*NET OnLine — Lawyers wages, Georgia, BLS OEWS 2025 (Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell) onetonline.org ↗

Retained legal search

Put the fee, the replacement window and the off-limits list in the letter before anyone is called.

Retained only. Companies and law firms. No obligation on a first conversation.

Brief a search Talk to us

[email protected]