Before I was a recruiter, I was the associate on the other side of this. I practiced at Skadden and Fried Frank, and when I thought about moving I got the same phone calls you are getting now. Someone had five jobs and wanted to know if they could send my resume. Nobody offered to tell me what those groups were actually like, how the partners staffed their teams, or what I should ask for at the offer stage. So I built the thing I wanted when I was in your seat. Here is exactly how it runs.
The six steps
Every search moves through the same six stages. The pace changes depending on your timeline and the market, and some steps loop back on themselves, though the sequence holds.
Market Mapping
We build the full map of what exists for someone with your experience, in the markets you are willing to consider. That includes seats that are never posted anywhere, because a partner or a recruiting director mentioned a need in conversation.
You should be choosing from everything that is real, and most candidates only ever see the small slice that happened to reach them. The map usually looks different from what people expect. Sometimes a group you have never thought about is the strongest fit on the board.
Intelligence
Once we have the map, I go find out what each option is actually like. Who runs the group, how they staff, who came in laterally over the past few years and who left, what the deal flow or docket looks like right now, and how the group sits inside the firm's economics.
Almost none of that is on a website. It lives in conversations with people inside those firms, in lateral movement I have tracked over time, and in what I hear from attorneys who have worked with those partners. A firm name tells you very little. The group and the people you would sit with tell you almost everything.
Strategy
Then we sit down and sort the list by what actually advances your goals over the next five to ten years. We also decide together which opportunities to decline, and that part matters just as much.
Some of the most valuable advice I give is telling someone to pass on a seat that looks excellent on paper. If a group has been a revolving door for three years, or the partner you would work under is winding down, or the practice will not build the skills you want when you are up for partner, I will say so plainly. You can disagree with me and I will still run hard at it. You should just have the information first.
Interview Preparation
Before every round, we put together preparation built for that specific firm, that specific group, and the specific people you are going to meet. We research their backgrounds, the matters they have worked on, where they went to school, and how they tend to run an interview.
Then we talk it through. Which of your matters to lead with, how to describe your role on them in the way that group thinks about its work, how to handle the question about why you are leaving, and what you should be asking them. Walking in already knowing who is across the table changes how the whole conversation feels.
Negotiation
When an offer comes, the details are where the value is. Class year credit, base compensation, signing bonus, guarantee terms, unvested bonus considerations, start date, and how to time competing processes so you are deciding with real leverage instead of under a deadline someone else set.
We handle the uncomfortable conversations so you never have to be the one pressing on money with people who are about to be your colleagues. Class year credit in particular tends to get overlooked, and it follows you for years in both compensation and partnership timing.
Long-Term Career Support
Should you want it, long-term career support is always available to candidates of Mosaic Search Partners. Some people want a check-in after the first few months, when a new firm still feels unfamiliar. Others prefer to get settled and simply know where to find us later.
Either way the door stays open. Years down the line, when you are weighing partnership, an in-house move, or another lateral, we are glad to be a sounding board. There is never an expectation attached to it.
What to expect from anyone you work with
You will talk to several recruiters over your career, and plenty of them are good at this. The useful thing is knowing what the work should look like so you can tell quickly what you are getting. Here is the standard I would hold anyone to, including us.
A transactional search
- You hear about the openings that recruiter happens to be working on.
- The pitch is the firm's website in slightly different words.
- Prep is a phone call the night before, if it happens.
- The offer arrives and you are told it is standard.
- Contact ends on your first day.
An advisory search
- You see the whole market for your profile, including seats that were never posted.
- You get specifics on the group, the partners, and the lateral history behind each option.
- You get written preparation for every round, built around the people you will meet.
- Someone negotiates the terms with you and explains what each one is worth.
- Long-term career support stays available if and when you want it.
Ask any recruiter what they actually know about a group beyond the firm name. Ask what they will send you before an interview. Ask what happens after you accept. The answers separate people quickly, and you are allowed to ask them of us too.
What interview preparation looks like
This is the part candidates tend to be most surprised by, so it is worth describing plainly. Before each round, we write you a prep memo for that interview. It is a real document, written for you and that specific conversation, and it lands with enough time for us to talk it through.
- The group. What the practice actually does day to day, the kind of work moving through it right now, its clients, how it is structured, and where it fits within the firm.
- The people. Everyone on your schedule. Backgrounds, practice focus, where they trained, what they have written or spoken about, and anything you genuinely have in common.
- Likely questions. What that group tends to ask and how they ask it, including the ones about your deal or case experience and the ones about why you are looking.
- Positioning. Which of your matters to lead with, how to frame your level of responsibility, how to answer the hard questions honestly, and what you should be asking them.
The memo gets rewritten for the callback, because the second round is a different conversation with different people and usually different concerns. None of this is a script. It is preparation, so that you spend the interview talking about your work instead of guessing at the room.
See what a prep packet looks like ›
Where to start
The first conversation is genuinely just a conversation. You tell us where you are, what you like about the work, what you do not, and what you want your career to look like in a decade. We tell you what we are seeing in your market and what we think your options are, including the option of staying put.
Plenty of those conversations end with us telling someone this is not the right moment to move. That is a fine outcome. When the moment is right, you will already know who to call.
Start with a conversation
Confidential, no obligation, and useful whether or not you decide to move. Tell us where you are and we will tell you what we are seeing.
Talk with us