Skip to main content
Thinking about the state of your career? Get answers with our self-assessment tool. Here!

International Corporate Partner Finds National Firm that Shares Ambition

Ortus Group placed a senior corporate lawyer with 30 years of experience, and international connections in Europe and Asia, at a national law firm in London.

This firm had significant plans to grow their corporate practice, and finding the right lawyer to implement this was integral to steering their growth. They reached out to Ortus Group following an independent six-month search, reaping no favourable results and causing the loss of significant income opportunity.

The firm already had a nationally significant corporate practice but they needed a senior partner to steer the London practice to the next level by developing more international work.

The Mission & Challenge

The London corporate market is an incredibly competitive market where most city and national firms have similar ambitions to grow their corporate offering through hiring good senior lawyers. These lawyers are contacted regularly by recruiters and headhunters. So, they are frequently presented with ideas.

Corporate lawyers with international contacts are common in large, international and city firms. However, many view a move from an international or city firm to a regional one as a backward step. Furthermore, they have various concerns including; reputation, international clients not willing to move with them to a regional firm, remuneration limitations and, smaller teams which may reduce their ability to service the work. This means that despite the relative abundance of people with the technical skills, it is much harder to find those with the right blend of ambition, ability and acumen.

How Ortus Group Approached This Successfully

The Ortus Group team researched the market to find every suitable corporate lawyer based in London with international connections. The final list was pared down to 75 people who met the criteria and Ortus Group began making contact with all candidates.

The ultimately successful individual was a member of a large international law firm where he had worked for 30 years, across multiple offices in different jurisdictions including Europe and Asia. Although he was beginning to become frustrated with his firm’s lack of ambition and fall out from a recent merger, he had a deep emotional connection there after so many years. While his head told him he needed to make a move, he was conflicted with his heart that told him to ride out the current issues. After all, he had been with the same firm for the duration of his career at that point.

The End Result

After many conversations with Ortus Group and several meetings with the client, he agreed that the project was both attractive and viable so we worked with him to develop his business plan.

Ortus Group worked with this person for several months and invested time into better understanding him, his motivations, and frustrations. In order to ensure that his needs were represented well to the firm, the team spoke to him and the client before and after every meeting to ensure long term benefits were real for both parties. The team also worked with him on his business plan and negotiated the final offer on his behalf.

Ortus Group has since built a strong and long-term relationship with the firm after developing a thorough understanding of the culture and requirements of the firm and is now working on their long term growth strategy across all departments.

Ortus Group has since built a long-term relationship with the firm after developing a thorough understanding of the firm’s culture.

Ortus Group Case Study International Experience National Law Firm

Find out how our team can help you by contacting us today.