Talent Acquisition Specialist (Partner Recruitment)

The role

This is a unique opportunity to join Shoosmiths' Talent Acquisition team specialising in Partner recruitment. If you are passionate about the legal market, motivated by building influential relationships, and excited by the opportunity to directly contribute to the growth of a leading law firm, we'd love to hear from you.

You will be at the forefront of the firm's ambitious 2030 growth strategy with the chance to help drive innovation in lateral recruitment through the use of AI, market insights and inclusive hiring practices.

The position of Talent Acquisition Specialist (Partner Recruitment) will play a critical role in supporting the delivery of Shoosmiths’ partner hiring strategy, working closely with the head of the Experienced Hire TA team to identify, attract and secure high-quality lateral partner and senior legal talent aligned to the firm’s 2030 growth ambitions.

The role combines market insight, proactive talent mapping, direct sourcing, and end-to-end recruitment delivery, alongside coordination of complex hiring processes and stakeholder engagement at senior level.

This role is pivotal in ensuring a data-led, inclusive and innovative approach to partner recruitment, leveraging market intelligence and emerging technologies, including AI, to support decision-making and outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Recruitment Caseload & Process Management

Coordinate the end-to-end partner and senior legal recruitment process, including:

• Support with a caseload of Partner search mandates in line with the firm’s 2030 strategy - both direct and via agency in respect of existing office locations or planned international growth
• Schedule interviews and manage senior stakeholder diaries
• Prepare briefing instructions and candidate profiles
• Facilitate interview feedback and debrief sessions
• Assist with management of Business Case drafting process
• Ensure a seamless and professional candidate experience throughout.
• Maintain accurate tracking of candidates and activity within the firm’s reporting tools.

Internal Know-how & Stakeholder Management

• Develop a keen understanding of the Firm’s strategy, chosen markets and expertise
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and influence up to Partner level.
• Act as a professional ambassador for the Talent Acquisition team and the Shoosmiths brand
• Present market intelligence and recruitment insights to support hiring decisions.
• Collaborate and engage confidently with senior law firm professionals, business leaders and external search partners.
• Highly organised with the ability to manage competing priorities while delivering an exceptional stakeholder and candidate experience.

Market Research

• Review and/or produce market mapping exercises to identify target firms, teams, and individuals aligned to strategic hiring priorities.
• Analyse legal market trends, competitor movement, and sector growth areas to inform hiring strategies.
• Produce high-quality market intelligence reports, including candidate longlists, diversity insights, and competitor benchmarking.
• Support the refinement of search strategies through iterative mapping and stakeholder feedback.

Direct Sourcing & Talent Engagement

• Proactively identify, approach and engage potential partner and senior legal candidates through targeted headhunting and networking.
• Build and nurture long-term relationships with high-calibre legal professionals.
• Develop and maintain talent pipelines for key practice areas and chosen markets.
• Ensure all candidate engagement reflects Shoosmiths’ brand, culture and values.
• Utilise multiple sourcing channels, including LinkedIn, legal directories, events and referrals.
• Actively drive diverse talent pipelines through targeted sourcing and market mapping.
• Monitor and report on diversity metrics within partner hiring activity.

Agency Management & Instruction

• Support the instruction and management of external search firms and recruitment agencies.
• Provide clear, structured briefs aligned to hiring requirements, including role scope, cultural fit and diversity considerations.
• Monitor agency performance and ensure high-quality candidate delivery.
• Maintain strong, collaborative relationships with agency partners while ensuring cost-effective and strategic use of agencies.
• Ensure agencies and stakeholders align with Shoosmiths’ diversity and inclusion commitments.

Offer Management

• Coordinate the offer process, ensuring timely communication between stakeholders and candidates
• Support offer management, approvals, and documentation processes.
• Liaise with HR Operations and other teams such as PR to ensure efficient preparation for and onboarding.

Key Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in end-to-end legal recruitment either in-house or in agency to a senior level, ideally with exposure to partner hiring.
• Strong capability in market mapping, headhunting and stakeholder and candidate process management.
• Experience managing agency relationships and complex recruitment processes.
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Strong commercial awareness of the legal market and an ability to understand how talent acquisition supports business growth and strategic objectives.
• Commitment to inclusive hiring practices and creating diverse talent pipelines.
• Curious and open-minded - passionate about continuous improvement
• Experience or interest in leveraging AI and recruitment technologies.

The Team

The Talent Acquisition team, part of the People Directorate at Shoosmiths, consists of Experienced Hire and Emerging Talent.

This role sits in the Experienced Hire team which is responsible for implementing the firm’s progressive talent acquisition strategy, supporting the firm's growth ambitions to excel in our chosen markets and become a leading mid-market law firm by 2030. We manage roles from Apprentice level to Partner and Director level.

The team is responsible for the entire recruitment life cycle for the firm from approval to recruit through to offer. We partner with Hiring managers across all divisions to deliver a valued, responsive and seamless service to our stakeholder clients and candidates. We are passionate about our role as brand ambassadors for the firm and delivering an excellent candidate experience to all applicants.

The Firm

Shoosmiths is the law firm clients choose for excellent service, incisive thinking and above all for our ability to focus on what matters. From offices across the UK and Brussels, we support some of the world’s most exciting and ambitious businesses; amazing clients making an impact. We empower our people to be their authentic selves and deliver together in supportive teams committed to excellence and innovation.

The first top 50 law firm to achieve ‘Platinum Standard’ Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm.

We have an outstanding benefits package to complement our competitive remuneration system. In addition to the competitive salaries, great working environment and high-quality work, we believe that all staff should be rewarded for their commitment to the continued success of the firm through a comprehensive and flexible range of benefits.

To discover more about Reward and benefits at Shoosmiths, please visit our website.

Shoosmiths is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. Disability Confident is a government scheme designed to encourage employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with long term conditions. The Disability Confident scheme replaced the Two Ticks Positive about Disabled People scheme.

We had been accredited as a two tick employer for many years - Disability Confident broadens and develops that original commitment, and demonstrates we have adopted a proactive approach to employing disabled people and developing their abilities.

As part of our accreditation, we commit to interviewing any applicants with a disability who meet the essential criteria for each vacancy. In some circumstances we may only be able to interview those that best meet the essential criteria due to the volume of applications received.

Further information on the Disability Confident scheme is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to and usable by everyone. If you have a disability or long-term condition and would like to receive information in a different way, or need us to make any adjustments, changes or do anything differently during the recruitment process, please get in touch with the Talent Acquisition team on Experienced.Hire@shoosmiths.com.

We can consider your needs and requirements, and how we can assist you to apply for our roles. For example we can provide a copy of our application via email so that you can complete it using your own accessibility software.

Equal opportunities

Our approach to our people is underpinned by our approach to diversity, inclusion and well-being. Our ambition is to build a diverse and ambitious workforce that reflects all backgrounds and talents, and a workplace that is supportive and inclusive, recognises and nurtures talent, and has a strong sense of community between colleagues.

This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.