West Coast Attorney Recruiting Specialist

Division: Associate, Counsel, Law Student Recruiting

Location: Hybrid or Remote (Must reside in Northern California, Oregon, or Washington)

Primary Market Focus: Supporting our Seattle, Portland, and Northern California offices

Schedule: Full-time; flexibility required during peak recruiting periods

Reports To: Attorney Recruiting Manager (West Coast)

Overview

Fisher Phillips is seeking an Attorney Recruiting Specialist to handle full-cycle attorney recruiting for assigned West Coast offices, with an initial focus on Seattle, Portland, and Northern California. This role is an integral part of the Associate, Counsel, and Law Student Recruiting team and, under the leadership of an Attorney Recruiting Manager, will have primary responsibility for lateral associate and counsel hiring across assigned markets.

The Specialist serves as a recruiting partner to Regional Managing Partners, office and practice group leaders, and other hiring attorneys. The role combines hands-on candidate sourcing and assessment with search strategy, pipeline management, candidate engagement, offer support, recruiting operations, and law student recruiting activities.

This position is designed for an experienced recruiting professional who can independently manage multiple searches, build candidate pipelines, provide market insight, and move recruiting activity forward with sound judgment and limited day-to-day direction. The Specialist will also support law student recruiting and the Summer Clerk Program across assigned offices.

Key Responsibilities

Lateral Attorney Recruiting

• Execute the full-cycle recruiting process for assigned associate and of counsel searches across Seattle, Portland, and Northern California offices, with support for other West Coast offices as business needs require.
• Partner with Regional Managing Partners, office leadership, practice group leaders, and other hiring attorneys to understand current and anticipated hiring needs, develop search strategies, and provide regular recruiting updates.
• Build and maintain robust candidate pipelines through direct sourcing, LinkedIn Recruiter, referrals, networking, internal leads, and approved search firms.
• Source, screen, and evaluate attorney candidates against defined hiring needs, and prepare concise candidate summaries and recommendations for hiring teams.
• Handle candidate communications throughout the recruiting lifecycle, including outreach, interview coordination, follow-up, offer-stage engagement, and post-acceptance communication.
• Coordinate offer preparation, negotiations, and acceptance activity in partnership with recruiting leadership and firm administration.
• Manage relationships with approved search firms, including submissions, communication, search status, and adherence to Firm recruiting policies.
• Monitor recruiting pipelines, identify stalled searches or market constraints, and proactively recommend adjustments to sourcing strategy, search criteria, or outreach approach.
• Provide market intelligence regarding candidate availability, compensation expectations, competitor activity, and other developments affecting assigned searches.
• Support onboarding initiation and transition activities for new attorney hires in coordination with Human Resources, Professional Development, IT, Office Administrators, and hiring attorneys.

Law Student Recruiting

• Support law student recruiting initiatives for assigned West Coast offices, including on-campus recruiting, first-year hiring, callback interviews, recruiting events, and the Summer Clerk Program.
• Coordinate candidate and attorney communications, interviews, offers, and follow-up activity for law student candidates as assigned.
• Partner with Recruiting Managers and team members to deliver a consistent, high-quality candidate and summer clerk experience across offices.
• Participate in planning and execution of office-specific law student recruiting strategies based on hiring needs, market conditions, and program objectives.

Recruiting Operations, Reporting & Team Support

• Maintain complete and accurate candidate, requisition, source, and hiring information in viRecruit and other recruiting systems.
• Monitor recruiting activity, pipeline status, hiring metrics, source effectiveness, and time-to-fill, and prepare reports that support team and leadership visibility.
• Use recruiting data and market information to identify opportunities to improve sourcing effectiveness, candidate conversion, workflow, and overall recruiting outcomes.
• Contribute to recruiting process improvement, technology adoption, and firmwide recruiting initiatives and special projects.
• Provide guidance and workflow support to Recruiting Coordinators as appropriate and help reinforce consistent recruiting practices and data quality standards across the team.
• Process recruiting-related expenses and provide administrative coordination as needed.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Four or more years of law firm lateral attorney recruiting experience required.
• Demonstrated experience leading full-cycle recruiting and independently advancing multiple searches from intake through acceptance.
• Strong direct-sourcing capability, including experience using LinkedIn Recruiter and other tools to identify, engage, and build relationships with passive candidates.
• Ability to assess candidate experience and qualifications against defined hiring needs and provide clear, concise recommendations to hiring teams.
• Strong relationship-management skills and the ability to build credibility with attorneys, candidates, search firms, and internal stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with sound judgment and discretion in handling confidential and sensitive information.
• Exceptional organization, project management, and time-management skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience working with applicant tracking systems required. Experience with viGlobal/viRecruit and iManage preferred.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite; experience with recruiting analytics, reporting, and data quality strongly preferred.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively within a geographically dispersed team.
• Curiosity about recruiting technology and a willingness to adopt tools and processes that improve sourcing, reporting, candidate experience, and recruiting effectiveness.

Location & Work Arrangement

Candidates must reside in Northern California, Oregon, or Washington to be considered. The position may be performed fully remotely or in a hybrid arrangement, with the option to work from a Fisher Phillips office two to three days per week. Periodic travel may be required for recruiting events, office meetings, or law student recruiting activities.

Compensation

This position offers a competitive annualized salary range of $80,000 to $100,000 for the Portland and Seattle markets, and $87,000 to $109,000 for Northern California (Sacramento/San Francisco). Actual base pay within these ranges will be determined based on factors including location, relevant experience, internal equity, skills, qualifications, and other job-related factors permitted by law.

FCA statement

Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with both the FCO and the California Fair Chance Act (FCA).

Equal Opportunity Employer

Fisher Phillips is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including related medical conditions), gender, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship status, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, age, disability, or any other protected status, in compliance with all applicable laws.

Why Join Us

At Fisher Phillips, exceptional talent is the foundation of our success. Joining our team means collaborating in a professional, dynamic environment leveraging cutting-edge technology. Our leadership fosters professional growth and provides opportunities to challenge yourself.

Our comprehensive benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) with profit sharing, 18 days of vacation, accrue 10 sick days each calendar year and 10 paid holidays per benefit year. Wellness programs and 24/7 telehealth services support your overall well-being. Visit www.fisherphillips.com to learn more.

Additional Notes

The statements in this position description are not necessarily all-inclusive. Additional duties and responsibilities may be assigned, and requirements may vary from time to time.

Relocation costs are not covered. We are only accepting direct applicants; third-party recruiters or agencies will not be considered. No phone inquiries, please.