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When Your General Counsel Seat Is Empty, Risk Doesn’t Wait.

 

When a General Counsel or Chief Legal Officer role is vacant, legal direction fractures. Regulatory strategy slows. Risk tolerance goes untested. Commercial decisions stall. Outside counsel spend expands – quietly and without internal counterbalance.

This is where the right search partner changes the trajectory. Princeton Legal Search Group partners with CEOs, Boards, and Chief Legal Officers to secure seasoned in-house legal leaders when the exposure is greatest and the margin for error is smallest. We combine institutional knowledge of your business with enduring access to undisclosed legal talent, delivering legal leaders who possess the judgment, credibility, and strategic discipline to strengthen the enterprise from day one.

Our work is fully embedded in the in-house legal market. We spend every day engaging with senior legal leaders and have built trusted relationships, acquiring the hiring insights required to execute high-stakes searches with confidence, transparency, and discretion.
It is this depth of engagement that leads those same leaders to rely on us when it’s their turn to build their own legal teams.

Since 1999, we have achieved a 100% placement success rate across every senior General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer search we’ve conducted, as measured by leaders who deliver impact to organizations navigating M&A, CEO transitions, market expansion, and increasing enterprise complexity.

The right legal leader reduces risk before it materializes. Our commitment is to secure that leader, with precision and certainty, the first time.

 

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In the News

Partner with Holland & Knight placed by Princeton Legal Search Group, LLC

In house counsel with IPS-Integrated Project Services placed by Princeton Legal Search Group

Vice President of Legal & Assistant General Counsel at Advocare is placed by Princeton Legal Search Group

America's Best Recruiters 2025 & 2004 NALSC * National Association of Legal Search Consultants
New Jersey Law Journal * The Best of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016

What People Are Saying

“Having managed many searches as General Counsel and COO of a growing FinTech firm, and now having launched my own firm, I hold Mary Clare and David in the highest regard among recruiters that I have worked with.  Their deep understanding of talent, as well as the needs of in-house teams handling highly sophisticated mandates, shines through at every juncture.  I have greatly enjoyed their professionalism and market savvy, am pleased to have worked with them, and look forward to building on that experience in the future.  I certainly recommend them to anyone seeking premier recruiting services.”

- Leonardo L. Caruso, Founder
Emereo Consulting, LLC

Princeton Legal, and Kiersten Lenherr in particular, are my heroes!  Prior to meeting with Kiersten, I had it in my mind that I may want to make a job change, but I was so intimidated by the application process, the time commitment of getting my materials together, and the prospect of interviewing for the first time in several years, that I kept putting it off.  Kiersten and her team made the entire process so smooth and simple for me.  From our very first conversation, I knew I was in good hands.  Princeton Legal takes the time to get to know the candidate, so you know you are getting an introduction and recommendation that highlights your best qualities.  From there, everything was seemless.  Kiersten went above and beyond to be available for my calls, questions, concerns (aka panic as I waited for my offer), and all the in-between.  She and David also helped me through the negotiation of the particulars of my offer, and the transition from my previous firm.  I cannot recommend this team enough.  Thank you times a million to Kiersten and Princeton Legal!

- Danielle Kunkel, Labor and Employment Associate
Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney

I’m just about two months into my first in-house position after almost 10 years as a “biglaw” associate. I couldn’t have wished for a better fit. Fortunately, Mary Clare knew my new employer well enough to know a good match when she saw one, and she made sure that I had a chance to prove her right.

She was fantastic during every step of my transition. She answered my questions about the position and about the company—promptly and substantively. And, importantly, she did a fantastic job preparing me for the interviews.

I learned a couple of valuable lessons in this process—go with a recruiter that takes the time to know the company, and that the company trusts. Mary Clare obviously has earned my employer’s trust.

- Larry Munoz, Senior Corporate Counsel
LAPAC Integra Life Sciences