Legal Innovation Executive Search. Built for the roles that are reshaping the legal industry.
The legal industry is building something new. We find the people to build it with you.
Law firms and legal technology companies are investing in innovation, AI, legal technology, and business development at a pace the recruiting market hasn't kept up with. Most recruiters understand one side of that equation: the legal world or the technology world. We understand both. Onward Recruiting's Legal Innovation Practice brings together decades of experience inside law firms and decades of technology and innovation search, applied with executive search discipline to every mandate we take on.
Elite Boutique. National reach. Legal industry depth.
VALUE PROPOSITION
Law firm insider expertise
Our team has worked inside law firms, not just alongside them. We understand how innovation functions are structured, how hiring decisions get made, and what it actually takes for a candidate to succeed in a law firm environment. That's not something you can replicate from the outside.
The search discipline
We bring executive search methodology to roles the market still treats as commodity. Every search begins with a genuine intake, a market mapping exercise, and direct senior involvement from first conversation to signed offer. We don't hand off. We don't disappear after the introduction. Want to understand how we work?
The network
We've spent years building relationships across legal technology, innovation, marketing and business development, and legal operations. Well before those functions were a priority for most firms. That means when you brief us, we're not starting from scratch.
Legal technology and innovation search
Legal Technology & Innovation
Directors of Legal Technology, innovation program leads, legal tech implementation specialists, knowledge management professionals, and the emerging roles firms are still defining as they build. Learn more about our legal tech and AI search.
Marketing & Business Development
BD Directors, CMOs, proposal and pitches leads, pricing and LPM professionals, client development managers. We know what these roles actually require inside a law firm, and we know where to find people who can deliver it. Learn more about our marketing and BD search.
Legal Operations & Strategy
Legal operations is one of the fastest-growing functions in the industry and one of the least well-understood by most recruiters. We place legal ops professionals who can navigate both the operational complexity and the political dynamics of the environments they're entering.
AI & Emerging Technology
Law firms and legal tech companies are hiring for AI roles without a clear market template. We help define what the role actually needs to look like, identify the available talent, and find candidates who bridge genuine legal understanding with real technical fluency.
Legal business search Services
AmLaw 100 and 200 firms building innovation and business development functions.
Boutique and regional firms making high-impact strategic hires.
Legal technology companies scaling their teams.
Alternative legal service providers and legal-adjacent organizations.
We partnered with a leading law firm to identify and place a specialized legal technology professional for a newly created role. A mandate that required deep understanding of both the firm's operational environment and a highly specific technical market. The result was a targeted search that delivered the right candidate on an accelerated timeline.
See the work in action
WHat Makes Us Different
Onward Recruiting's Legal Innovation Practice is founder-led and deliberately boutique. Lacie Marshall brings nearly 25 years of legal recruiting experience, including two decades inside law firm recruiting and professional development departments. James Shenton brings 30 years of technology and enterprise recruitment. The team combines that law firm insider perspective with executive search expertise in technology, innovation, and business development.
A combination that is genuinely uncommon in this market.
Every client works directly with senior people. Every search gets the same standard of care, regardless of seniority level.
Building a career in legal innovation?
We work with legal technology managers, AI program leads, BD directors, legal operations professionals, pricing specialists, and more. If you're working at the intersection of law and innovation, or looking to make that move, we'd like to know you.
Building a Career in Legal Innovation?
If you work at the intersection of law and technology — or you're trying to get there — Onward Legal Innovation wants to know you. We work with legal technology managers, AI program leads, Directors of Innovation, Chief AI Officers, knowledge management professionals, legal operations specialists, pricing and LPM professionals, and BD directors at law firms and legal tech companies. We also work with professionals from adjacent technology and professional services backgrounds who are looking to move into legal innovation roles.
Most of the roles we fill are never posted publicly. The firms we work with come to us specifically because the candidates they need are not on job boards. If you are doing interesting work in legal tech, AI, innovation, or BD — at a law firm, a legal tech company, or in an adjacent field — we would like to have a conversation. Every conversation is confidential. There is no pressure and no obligation.
Who We Serve
We place professionals into roles at AmLaw 100 and 200 firms building innovation and business development functions, boutique and regional firms making high-impact strategic hires, legal technology companies scaling their teams, and alternative legal service providers. We recruit nationally across New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, Houston, Dallas, and other leading U.S. legal markets.
Onward Legal Innovation is the innovation practice of Onward Recruiting, a proud member of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC). We adhere to their Code of Ethics in every engagement. For attorney search services, visit onwardrecruiting.com.
Ready to make a strategic hire?
Every search starts with a conversation. Tell us what you're building.