Case Study

Executive Search and Advisory Across Marketing/Business Development and Finance Functions

A firm sought out our executive search services to develop a newly formed first-chair layer of both marketing and business development functions. Alongside this work, we were advising the C-Suite and firm leadership to achieve ultimate success in these first-chair roles, and with this came a natural expansion to include other senior searches they had across multiple business functions within their firm. 

With a deep understanding of law firm culture and operations, we deliberately built a talent network that spans all business functions, ensuring we can place leaders who thrive technically, culturally, and strategically.

This Am Law 200 client faced challenges across several of their core business functions, including high turnover, brand perception issues, and instability in leadership. They engaged us to guide a course correction through a series of strategic searches and advisory work, focused not just on filling roles but on reshaping organizational culture and team structure.

Our Approach

We ran a series of Director-level Marketing/Business Development (M/BD) searches, using these engagements as a platform to gain deep insight into the firm’s culture, leadership dynamics, and operational challenges. Simultaneously, the firm’s Chief Financial Officer sought our services to stabilize and rebuild the finance team, which was experiencing turnover due to a unique set of people-related circumstances.

Our process included:

• Engaging C-Suite leaders and office managing partners in detailed discussions to uncover the root causes of brand perception issues and turnover within key teams
• Identifying smaller market nuances, working arrangement challenges, and management instabilities that were impacting team performance.
• Mapping the finance talent market and introducing candidates who could navigate ambiguity, withstand transitional challenges, and bring Big Law experience to a more nimble firm.
• Aligning each search and placement to both the firm’s strategic goals and cultural context, balancing partner expectations, leadership styles, and ongoing operational needs.

This dual approach – M/BD and Finance – allowed us to create solutions that were not only tactical (filling immediate openings) but strategic, shaping the foundation of the firm’s growth and stability.

Strategic Outcome

• The finance team was successfully reset, with leaders who could operate effectively in an evolving and sometimes ambiguous environment while processes and structures were being established.
  
• The M/BD Director placements strengthened the firm’s ability to acquire new market share in strategic markets and industries.
  
• We supported the firm’s new C-Suite leadership, who valued nimble execution without bureaucratic friction, helping them navigate competing partner priorities and differing objectives.
  
• Both functions now have leadership capable of sustaining performance, ensuring continuity, and fostering collaboration across offices and practice groups.
  

Our Perspective

This engagement shows how executive search can drive strategic transformation, far beyond simply placing candidates. By leveraging our long-term knowledge of law firm culture, C-Suite dynamics, partnership models, and market data, we placed leaders who could stabilize teams, navigate ambiguity, and deliver tangible results. Importantly, our approach demonstrates the power of combining advisory insight with highly targeted search capabilities to create sustainable organizational impact across multiple business functions.