Director of Strategic Growth, Legal

With eleven offices across the United States, 450+ professionals and 350+ staff professionals, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP is a multidisciplinary, integrated national professional services firm known for quality and an extraordinary commitment to clients. The firm’s groundbreaking approach—bringing together legal services, advocacy and business strategy—differentiates Manatt from its competitors and positions the firm to provide a unique and compelling value proposition.

The Director of Strategic Growth, Legal will lead the efforts in executing Manatt’s national recruiting strategy with a focus on legal attorney recruiting.  This senior level role will work closely with the Firm’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner as well as the Group and Business Unit Leaders and various recruiting committees to execute and drive the Firm’s legal strategic growth plan. This role will report to the Firm’s Chief Human Resources Officer.

Primary responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Oversee the creation and implementation of the annual strategic growth plan, including providing leadership and vision for the recruiting/sourcing strategy and approach.
• Lead and manage all aspects of the Firm’s legal recruiting efforts, including overseeing the interview, feedback collection and evaluation, business justification, offer, and onboarding processes for all levels of attorneys (summer associates, associates, partners, etc.) with a specific hands-on focus on the lateral partner recruitment process, working with the Firm’s CEO and Managing Partner.
• Manage and provide hands-on leadership for the Strategic Growth legal team across all three legal recruiting pipelines (summer, associate, and partner) by providing work direction with clear performance expectations, developing goals and accountability measures, providing mentorship and fostering career growth, ensuring team members are fully equipped to execute strategic priorities effectively.
• Oversee the lateral hiring process, including preparing, updating, and managing the correspondence of offer letters, reviewing offers for consistency and uniformity, and conducting due diligence to ensure compliance with all risk management policies and procedures including conflicts checks, background checks and references.
• Research and source senior level lateral target candidates utilizing Leopard List software and LinkedIn Recruiter.
• Maintain a pulse on legal recruiting trends by researching lateral target candidates and monitoring sources for information about candidates, peer firms, market activity, industry trends, and other information relevant to lateral recruiting.
• Cultivate a strong understanding of various legal markets and establish strong relationships with key recruiters in those markets to ensure they understand the firm’s strategic growth plan and can properly convey firm culture.
• Build and execute a compelling and consistent Firm-wide employment brand across social media, video channels and industry organizations in order to improve candidate experience and build awareness for employment opportunities as well as developing and implementing strategies to brand and market the firm to schools and guide campus-specific marketing initiatives, including quarterly recruiting newsletter, recruiting brochures, outreach emails, and the recruiting pages of the website.
• Exercise strategic and creative thinking in uncovering new lateral hiring sources outside of traditional search firms and referrals.
• Oversee the transition of all lateral partner hires and their teams of attorneys, coordinating the onboarding process with the appropriate administrative department leaders.
• Utilize data and analytics fully understand trends and create a hiring strategy.
• Create and manage the legal recruiting budget, including forecasting, resource allocation, vendor negotiations, cost management, and expense approvals ensuring alignment with firm strategic objectives.
• Formulate, administer and maintain recruiting policies, operational procedures and practices consistent with the goals and objectives of the Firm.
• Partner closely with the Director of Strategic Growth, Consulting and work collaboratively with other Business Professional departments.
• Lead with additional Strategic Growth projects as assigned/needed.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree required. JD preferred.
• 10 + years of recruiting experience in a law firm required, with at least 5+ years’ experience as a lateral partner strategist working directly with senior firm leadership.
• Demonstrated established relationships with legal recruiters.
• Team management experience required.
• Superior verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to gather information from a broad range of sources and influence others and have the ability to communicate effectively with all levels within the Firm’s structure.
• Exceptional relationship-building skills and client service oriented: can effectively interface with attorneys and consultants at all levels, staff, law school administrators, and recruiters.
• Strong analytical, organizational/attention to detail skills: accurate, precise, and follows up regularly and appropriately.
• Ability to function in a fast-paced, service-oriented environment, prioritize multiple projects on a daily basis, adjust to shifting priorities, all with a “can-do” “roll up the sleeves” attitude.
• Deep personal commitment to integrity, excellent judgment, and the highest standards of ethics.
• Ability to work independently (self-motivated with proven ability to anticipate problems and move things forward with limited direction and varying deadlines) and as part of a team with a proactive and positive style that fosters collaborative working relationships.
• Ability to work discreetly with confidential information and situations.
• Strong technical and computer skills: proficiency in MS Word, Outlook, and Excel required.  Experience with viDesktop, Leopard List, LinkedIn Recruiter and/or Lawcruit a plus.
• Travel will be required to other firm locations, as needed.

The base annual pay range for this role is between $200,000-$275,000. The base pay to be offered will vary and depend on skills and qualifications, experience, location and will also take into account internal equity.  A full range of medical, financial and/or other benefits dependent on the position will also be offered.

EEO/AA EMPLOYER/Veterans/Disabled

Manatt is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to a policy of non-discrimination in employment on any basis including race, color, physical or mental disability, religion, creed, national origin, citizenship status, ancestry, sex or gender (including gender identity, gender expression, status as a transgender or transsexual individual, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), age (over 40), genetic information, past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, sexual orientation, political activity or affiliation, genetic or and any other protected classes or characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. Consistent with the American Disabilities Act, applicants may request accommodations needed to participate in the application process.

This employer will provide the Social Security Administration  (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security  (DHS), with information from each new employee’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.IMPORTANT: If the Government cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to provide you written instructions and an opportunity to contact SSA and/or DHS before taking  adverse action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers may not use E-Verify to pre-screen job applicants or  to re-verify current employees and may not limit or influence the  choice of documents presented for use on the Form I-9. In order to determine whether Form I-9 documentation is valid,  this employer uses E-Verify’s photo screening tool to match the photograph appearing on some permanent resident and employment authorization cards with the official U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) photograph. If you believe that your employer has violated its responsibilities under this program or has discriminated against you during the verification process based upon your national origin or citizenship status, please call the Office of Special Counsel at 1-800-255-7688 (TDD: 1-800-237-2515).