By working exclusively with corporate legal departments and eschewing law firm recruiting, Evers Legal stays in tune with the evolution of in-house culture. Although we are best known for traditional direct hire search and placement of experienced in-house counsel, we have broadened our service offerings over the years to meet the niche needs of law departments.
About 10 years ago we began providing “adjunct counsel.” I wanted to create an option for on-site secondments that would be based on quality rather than volume. Our vision was to fill your contract attorney needs with talent that exceeded the expectations often associated with that term. Sometimes our adjunct counsel are even converted to direct hire positions, as happened just last month for Greg Lacey. A former Dykema partner and all around great guy, Greg was on an assignment for us with Adtalem, a for-profit education company, before landing permanently there. Congrats Greg!
And now, for the first time in several years, we are extending our service offering once again. We are now your go-to search firm when you need a legal department operations (LDO) professional. This position is a natural fit within our niche law department expertise and network. Moreover, individuals with the right experience to fill these roles are not yet available in large numbers. Put bluntly, a do-it-yourself approach to recruiting a top shelf LDO will be frustrating. Let us help!
A friend of our firm, Brad Blickstein, who has published the Annual Law Department Operations Survey since 2008, kindly wrote our Your Career column for this issue of eNews for individuals who want to learn more about LDO roles as a career growth opportunity.
After consulting several LDO professionals in major companies, as well as Brad, we have developed a pretty good feel for the job and who is right for it. The job itself is continually evolving. In sum, a good LDO will lower your company’s legal spend while also freeing your GC to focus on solving problems and counseling the C-suite and board.
For a more complete list of what responsibilities a good LDO tackles, check out the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium.
Please call me at 312-225-1144 to learn more about this new service offering, including our fee structure for handling a LDO search. If you are considering adding a LDO to your department for the first time, I also recommend Brad as a resource to help assess the need. We can work in tandem to create the right job description and help you maximize the benefits of hiring a great LDO professional.