Senior In-House Commercial Lawyer for a Global Computer Company
The brief
Cyan Partners was retained by a one of the world’s biggest global technology hardware businesses to place a senior lawyer in their UK legal team. This position with a household name was to support the new Head of Legal.
The challenge
Cyan Partners was recommended to the hiring manager following an unsuccessful internal process to fill the role.
This was a challenging assignment for several reasons. The role had already been out to market and, after three months, no suitable candidates had been identified. The salary was a little below market rate for the role they were seeking, yet they were looking for a very senior placement, but someone who didn’t want the Head of Legal role. They were also seeking a candidate that fitted with the culture of the team and wider business, someone they could connect with and trust. This cannot be articulated through a job spec and requires careful understanding of the client and in-depth screening of candidates in order to make a successful placement.
The results
We built a good rapport with the hiring manager to get a strong understanding of the required personality traits of the ideal candidate. A number of candidates looked good on paper but did not progress because of the special connection the hiring manager was seeking. After four months of continuous advertising and searching, the ideal candidate was found.
Using many years of recruitment experience and the deeper understanding of the client, we found a particular candidate that we knew instinctively would be the perfect fit. An hour after the CV was sent to the hiring manager the directive was given that this candidate needed to be interviewed immediately. That interview took place within a couple of days and a decision was made extremely quickly thereafter. The candidate started in their new role four weeks later and the placement has been hugely successful for both parties.
