Director, Firmwide Recruiting & Strategic Growth

Essential Functions

Strategic Leadership & Growth Planning

• Design and drive the Firm's attorney and business professional recruiting strategy across all offices and levels, aligned with practice area and business needs.
• Develop recruiting strategies that not only address immediate hiring needs but also support long-term retention, succession planning, business growth, and market positioning across attorney and business professional roles.
• Establish and nurture relationships with potential lateral attorneys, teams, and strategic talent in partnership with Firm leadership.
• Build long-term attorney and business professional talent pipelines, proactively seeking opportunities to attract individuals with skills and backgrounds aligned with future needs.
• Analyze legal market trends, peer firm practices, and compensation data to anticipate hiring needs and keep the Firm competitive.
• Advise on strategic growth initiatives and support hiring-related due diligence.
• This role is inherently cross-functional and requires strong collaboration with Leaders across the Firm including but not limited to Firm Leadership, CXO's, and Practice Group Leaders to ensure that recruiting strategies are aligned with the Firm's long-term growth and talent priorities. Will also collaborate with the Hiring and Lateral Committees on planning and structure, offering strategic insights and recommendations on recruiting policies and market positioning.

  Recruiting Brand, Marketing & Outreach Strategy

• Ensure recruiting brand efforts reflect the Firm's positioning as a market-leading, innovative employer of choice, with consistent messaging across all platforms and candidate experiences.
• Guide the creation of recruiting collateral, law school materials, and job postings to ensure alignment with the Firm's reputation and values.
• Set Firmwide strategy for job fairs, on-campus interviews, and recruiting event participation, evaluating return on investment and visibility opportunities.
• Establish candidate engagement and pre-onboarding touchpoint strategies, executed by the Talent Acquisition Team.
• Maintain high-level relationships with law schools, search firms, and professional organizations to enhance outreach and visibility.

  Recruiting Operations & Execution Oversight

• Provide oversight and direction for all recruiting efforts, including lateral, law school, strategic growth, and business professional hiring.
• Supervise the Talent Acquisition Team, which is responsible for execution, coordination, and hiring logistics. Provide day-to-day leadership, coaching, and strategic direction to ensure high performance across the group.
• Evaluate workflow models, and operational infrastructure to ensure the recruiting function is equipped to support continued strategic growth, consistent with best practices in talent acquisition and in a manner that positions the Firm as a market-leading, innovative employer of choice.
• Set and monitor success metrics including time-to-hire, candidate engagement, pipeline strength, and the long-term performance and retention of new hires.
• Conceptualize and oversee the development of dashboards to track key recruiting KPIs, and analyze data to identify trends, propose process improvements, conduct equity checks, and inform pipeline strategy.
• Work closely with other People Operations Team Leaders on onboarding, integration, compliance, new hire development and engagement.

  Budget Management & Compliance

• Develop and oversee the recruiting budget, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state and local laws as well as Firm policies, delegate day-to-day tasks to the Recruiting Team.

  Leadership & Team Development

• Foster a team culture that reflects the Firm's commitment to being an innovative employer of choice, encouraging new ideas, experimentation, and a deep understanding of what attracts and retains top talent.
• Champion a growth mindset and forward-looking approach to talent acquisition by fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement across the recruiting function.
• Provide professional development opportunities, coaching, and mentorship to support continuous growth and innovation.

• Perform other duties as assigned

• Bachelor's degree required, JD or advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of legal or professional services recruiting experience, including lateral and law school hiring.
• Proven strategic leadership in talent acquisition, recruiting marketing, and team management.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across teams and with Firm leadership.
• Proficiency in applicant tracking systems (Vi preferred) and recruiting data analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to lead collaborative teams with a growth mindset, champion innovation in recruiting strategy, and effectively leverage technology and data to drive results.
• Proven ability to develop and implement firmwide recruitment strategies aligned with long-term business growth objectives.
• Deep understanding of the legal industry, including talent acquisition trends, market dynamics, and competitive positioning.
• Exceptional skills in fostering relationships with key stakeholders, including partners, leadership, and external recruitment partners.

• Strong proficiency in leveraging data analytics to drive decision-making, measure recruitment
• success, and forecast talent needs.
• Demonstrated ability to drive innovation, challenge the status quo, and persuade stakeholders toward adopting new talent strategies.

• Non-smoking environment.
• Must be available to work beyond regular business hours as needed.
• Must be able to work under tight deadlines.
• Hybrid work arrangements may be available for this position.

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $170,000 to $225,000. The actual base salary offered will be dependent upon the applicant's experience and qualifications, as well as other job-related factors, including but not limited to, relevant skills, education, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, geographic location.

Steptoe offers a full range of benefits for you and your eligible dependents. Benefits currently include: medical, dental, vision, life, disability, dependent care, health care flexible spending accounts, 401K Plan, Profit-Sharing, Paid Time-Off and a robust Wellness Program.

Steptoe LLP is an equal opportunity employer EOE/AA/Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information, or any basis proscribed by applicable statutes.