Manager, Lateral Partner Recruiting

Milbank LLP; New York (NY); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Milbank LLP in New York, NY seeks a Manager, Partner Recruiting to own the end-to-end partner hiring process from search through offer, partnership vote, and integration. You will coordinate closely with sponsoring partners, Practice Group leaders, and Business Services leadership to ensure a smooth, compliant experience.

The role combines market knowledge with strong process discipline, overseeing search firm relationships, market intelligence, and governance across the partner lifecycle.

Qualifications

• 7–8+ years of legal recruiting or professional services operations experience.
• Experience managing or mentoring junior staff is preferred.
• Proven ability to manage sophisticated, multi-stakeholder processes in a partner-led environment.
• Strong executive presence with confidence engaging with partners and leadership.
• Knowledge of law firm economics, partnership structures, and lateral compensation.
• Experience managing outside vendor/search firm relationships and fee agreements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; high discretion and integrity.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage the Partner Process Checklist across all stages: recruiting, offer, vote, onboarding, and integration.
• Coordinate interviews with Practice Group Leaders and senior partners; manage calendars and process prerequisites.
• Maintain market intelligence and synthesize it into practical briefings for leadership.
• Oversee offer, vote, and governance logistics; align compensation and approvals with stakeholders.
• Lead onboarding and Day 1 activities; coordinate cross-functional efforts for a cohesive onboarding experience.
• Manage and develop a recruiting coordinator; ensure high-quality output and adherence to timelines.
• Build trusted relationships with partners and firm leadership; communicate timelines, risks, and decisions clearly.

Skills

Legal recruiting

Executive presence

Project management

Vendor management

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Workday

Job description

The Manager, Partner Recruiting owns and continuously improves the Firm’s end-to-end partner hiring process from search through offer, partnership vote, and integration. This role serves as the central project manager and day-to-day operational counterpart to sponsoring partners, Practice Group leaders, and Business Services leadership, and requires the credibility to engage directly and substantively with partners, candidates, outside search firms, and other key stakeholders.

Reporting to the Director of Global Legal Recruiting, the ideal candidate combines legal market knowledge, strong process discipline, sound judgement, and excellent forward-facing communication skills to oversee search-firm and candidate relationships, organize market intelligence to inform recruiting strategy, and manage a coordinator who supports administrative and tracking tasks.

Responsibilities

Process Ownership & Continuous Improvement

• Own and manage the Partner Process Checklist, ensuring it is accurate, current, and consistently followed across all partner hires.
• Serve as the central point of accountability for tracking progress, dependencies, deliverables, and approvals across all stages: recruiting, offer, partnership vote, pre-arrival, onboarding, and post-start integration.
• Proactively identify gaps, redundancies, and risk points in the partner process; recommend and implement improvements in alignment with firm leadership.
• Define clear ownership and escalation paths for checklist items, particularly where responsibilities sit with partners or cut across multiple teams.
• Develop internal reporting, status summaries, and dashboards to provide leadership with visibility into timelines, risks, and upcoming milestones.

Search Coordination & Vendor Management

• Manage day-to-day relationships with retained and contingency search firms, including search firm agreements, fee terms, and submission protocols.
• Coordinate interview processes and schedules with Practice Group Leaders, Executive Committee members, and other senior partners.
• Ensure all recruiting prerequisites are completed in a timely and compliant manner, including search firm agreements, NDAs, LPQs, background checks, and conflicts reviews.

Market Intelligence

• Maintain organized, current records of lateral market activity, such as practice group movement and competitive trends, drawn from search firm relationship, industry data, and the Firm’s own placement history.
• Synthesize this information into concise, practical briefings for the Director of Global Legal Recruiting and firm leadership and be conversant enough in current trends to discuss them credibly.

Offer, Vote & Governance Coordination

• Manage offer-stage workflows, ensuring alignment across compensation, capital contributions, conflicts, approvals, and documentation.
• Coordinate logistics and materials required for partnership votes, including candidate memos, presentation materials, vote administration, and post-vote communications.
• Partner with Governance, HR, Finance, and firm leadership to ensure consistency and adherence to partnership policies and approval requirements.

Onboarding & Integration Leadership

• Oversee all pre-arrival and Day 1 onboarding activities to ensure systems access, paperwork, agreements, and logistics are completed on schedule.
• Coordinate across HR, IT, Finance, Marketing/BD, Facilities, and Practice Leadership to deliver a cohesive onboarding experience.
• Ensure new partners receive comprehensive orientations covering compensation, capital, tax, benefits, billing, technology, governance, and firm resources.
• Track post-start integration milestones (e.g., first 30 days, first quarter) and proactively follow up on outstanding integration items.

Team Management & Collaboration

• Manage, train, and develop a direct report recruiting coordinator.
• Delegate routine administrative and tracking work effectively.
• Review work product for accuracy, consistency, and quality.
• Remain flexible within the larger Recruiting and People team context to support initiatives and processes outside of immediate areas of responsibility, as needed.

Stakeholder Management & Communication

• Serve as the primary internal point of contact for partner recruiting and integration matters across Business Services teams.
• Build trusted relationships with Practice Group Leaders and firm leadership through clear communication, reliability, and discretion.
• Communicate proactively on timelines, expectations, risks, and decision points.
• Handle sensitive partner, compensation, and governance information with a high degree of professionalism and confidentiality.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 7–8+ years of legal industry experience in legal recruiting, professional services operations, HR, or complex project management roles.
• Experience managing or mentoring junior staff preferred.
• Proven ability to manage sophisticated, multi-stakeholder processes involving senior professionals in a partner-led environment.
• Strong executive presence, with the confidence to engage directly with partners and firm leadership and to hold a substantive, informed point of view on candidates and process.
• Working knowledge of law firm economics, partnership structures, and lateral compensation frameworks.
• Experience managing outside vendor/search firm relationships, including fee agreements and resolving competing claims.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; polished, forward-facing style.
• Exceptional organizational skills, attention to detail, and follow-through.
• High level of discretion, judgment, and integrity.
• Experience working with document management and workflow tools (e.g., Workday or similar).

Compensation

The anticipated base salary range offered for this role will be between $160,000 to $200,000 and represents the firm’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the base compensation range. Actual base compensation will be dependent upon several factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s relevant experience, performance, qualifications, degrees, and location, as well as the needs of the firm.