Senior Talent Acquisition Manager

Purpose

This role is responsible for end-to-end Talent Acquisition delivery across the US, spanning:

•           Early Careers (law school / first year and summer associate recruiting)

•           Experienced lawyers (associates and counsel lateral hiring)

•           Business teams hiring across all functions

The role combines strategic oversight and hands-on operational delivery, ensuring that Linklaters attracts, engages, and secures the highest-quality talent to support the firm’s US growth ambitions.

Acting as a trusted adviser to senior stakeholders, the role integrates hiring strategies across all talent segments, ensuring alignment to workforce plans, diversity objectives, and broader people strategy

Key responsibilities

1. US Talent Acquisition Leadership (All Talent Segments)

• Lead and deliver all US hiring activity across legal and business teams populations
• Develop integrated hiring strategies covering early careers, lateral lawyers, and functional roles
• Align hiring activity to business growth plans, headcount forecasts and workforce strategy
• Provide market insight and hiring intelligence to senior stakeholders

2. Early Careers / Law School Recruitment

• Define and execute the US law school engagement and campus recruiting strategy
• Build relationships with career services and student bodies to position Linklaters as an employer of choice
• Oversee the on-campus interview program and candidate selection process
• Design and deliver a market-leading summer associate program, including training, engagement and assessment processes
• Manage full-cycle conversion from summer associates to full-time hires

3. Experienced Lawyers Hiring (Operational Leadership)

• Own the end-to-end lateral hiring process for associates and counsel
• Partner with practice leaders to define resourcing needs and hiring priorities
• Lead operational execution including screening, interview coordination, feedback synthesis, offers and onboarding
• Ensure a high-touch candidate experience for senior and complex hires

4. Business Teams Recruitment (US)

• Lead delivery of business teams hiring across all US functions and levels
• Execute end-to-end recruitment processes (briefing, sourcing, offer and onboarding)
• Build and manage proactive talent pipelines and market mapping capability
• Use data and insights to improve performance, service delivery and hiring outcomes

5. Stakeholder Partnership & Advisory

• Act as a trusted adviser to partners, functional leaders and senior stakeholders
• Provide strategic hiring advice, balancing commercial, operational and market considerations
• Support talent reviews, workforce planning and succession discussions through hiring insight
• Prepare materials and updates for senior forums and executive stakeholders

6. Supplier & External Relationship Management

• Manage relationships with search firms, agencies and recruitment partners
• Ensure strong governance, performance management and value for money
• Maintain external networks across law schools, professional bodies and talent communities

7. Process Excellence, Data & Governance

• Establish and continuously improve best-in-class recruitment processes and methodologies
• Ensure data integrity, reporting accuracy and insight generation across US hiring activity
• Maintain compliance with firm policies, governance and data standards
• Embed Talent & Engagement priorities across all hiring activity, driving diverse and inclusive talent outcomes

8. Team Leadership

• Provide leadership, direction and coaching to US recruitment team members
• Build a high-performing, collaborative and customer-focused TA team
• Drive capability development and continuous improvement

Qualifications & Experience

• Significant experience in Talent Acquisition within the legal sector, including:
  • Early careers / campus recruitment
  • Lateral hiring of associates and senior lawyers
• Proven ability to lead end-to-end recruitment delivery across multiple talent segments
• Strong stakeholder management experience with senior partners and business leaders
• Commercial acumen with ability to align hiring to business strategy and market conditions
• Experience managing search firms and external suppliers
• Strong data orientation with ability to use insight to drive decisions
• Excellent communication, influencing and advisory skills
• Educated to degree lev