I hope you are feeling as good about your employer as I am this holiday season.
2017 has been one of the most enjoyable years of my career, and I am extraordinarily thankful to our clients, candidates and friends of our firm for this result. We handled interesting and challenging searches for great companies such as Adtalem, Baxter, Re:Sources USA and Principal Financial Group. We were proud to place the first in-house attorney with a Crain’s Fast Fifty company, Maven Wave. And we have several Adjunct Counsel on secondments with Fortune 500 law departments.
We improved our Adjunct Counsel offering so that our contract attorneys can opt into health care and other benefits. And I tweaked our traditional permanent search pricing structure to reflect how companies want to go about their Senior Counsel to Assistant General Counsel level searches. Moreover, the year is closing with the likelihood of an exciting Deputy General Counsel (with succession planning in mind) search in Q1 of 2018 that we will handle confidentially.
Also in early 2018, we are conducting an extensive national career satisfaction survey among in-house counsel. In mid-2018, we will compare those results to our report from the 2016 survey. If you are receiving this eNews email, we will be inviting you to participate—confidentially of course—in the survey.
All of this comes on the heels of a year in which I lost my way a bit. That’s not something my advisors would encourage me to put in writing. But I have always been more about candor than sales puffery. I grumbled a lot in 2016 about Executive Search firms getting the Fortune 500 General Counsel orders that I know we can handle even more effectively. Ok, so I still grumble about that, lol! But in 2016, I wasted time exploring partnerships with those firms.
Then I tried without success to land the kind of orders that go to Spencer Stuart and Russell Reynolds. I learned from the effort, to be sure, but failure of any kind is humbling. I didn’t like it. Making matters worse, I spent less time staying in touch with the senior level in-house counsel who have been our highly valued contacts over the years. To anyone who felt neglected, I offer my sincerest apology.
In 2017, I doubled down on what the market wants and expects from my niche search firm: flexibility, speed, law department staffing expertise and most importantly candidate quality. The instant rebound into a terrific year is even more humbling than failure. I feel immensely grateful. Lesson learned.
In 2018, I intend to triple down on what we do best. In fact, I intend to be doing this for many more years. I love it. My gut also tells me that, when I least expect it, the right CEO or EVP of HR for a Fortune 500 will hear about us and take the “chance” on Evers Legal to handle its GC search. He or she will be rewarded with a great result. Because I know who will likely get the job. It will be someone who is reading this column right now. Thank you for your support!