Things are happening at NALSC!

Our membership and sponsorship rosters continue to grow at a healthy 8.2% annual increase, with total membership at an all-time high of 271 search firms and 86 supporting law firms (see our Membership Report for details). We at NALSC also appreciate our growing number of corporate sponsors, who provide the legal search community with valuable goods and services.

Our membership elected three new members of the Board: Tiffany Ambrose, Victoria Gamble, and Alyssa Lerner. The current Executive Committee is comprised of myself as President, Stuart TenHoor as VP-Strategic Planning, Kevin Bacon as Secretary, Esther Alpert as VP-Membership, Ross Weil as Treasurer, and Mitch Satalof as Immediate Past President. With these new members, our officers and committees have been very busy pursuing new initiatives, many of which you will read about in this issue.

NALSC regularly boasts robust participation in our online educational programs such as Recruiter Roundtables, Office Hours, and NALSC Presents. Additionally, we’ve expanded our Recruiter Stories podcasts, charmingly hosted by our past VP-Long Range Planning, Jordan Abshire, which can be accessed here: https://www.nalsc.org/podcasts/. Our social media presence and newly updated website (check it out at www.nalsc.org) enhance our brand awareness campaign, all of which contribute to our organization’s growth and increasing prominence in the legal community. You can read more about these efforts in this issue.

As you probably noticed, we continue to attract sell-out crowds at our Conferences and Symposia, with the last Annual Conference in New Orleans on February 26-28 setting the record for the longest wait list ever. We apologize to those who missed that fantastic event. We’re booking larger venues as we plan for the future, so we can accommodate our enthusiastic attendees!

The New Orleans conference was not only well attended, but extremely well received. As one attendee explained: “The NALSC Annual Conference 2026 was an outstanding event and one of the most valuable conferences in our industry. The programming was insightful and practical, and the opportunity to connect with so many talented legal recruiters and law firm contacts made it especially worthwhile. I left energized, with great new ideas and stronger relationships across the NALSC community.” Another attendee summed it up succinctly: “The perfect conference. I learned so much and met so many brilliant people.”

We have another exciting event coming up in September. Registration is strong for the 2026 NALSC Fall Symposium in Austin, Texas. The event kicks off with a welcome networking reception generously hosted by Jackson Walker in their offices on Thursday evening, September 24th, from 6-8pm. Friday, September 25, offers a full day of practical and insightful programming at the Austin Hilton. Symposium sessions run from 8am to 5pm, with an afternoon champagne toast, capped off by a farewell reception at the Hilton from 5-7pm. As with all of our events, we’ll provide extensive networking opportunities and promise to deliver actionable tips that we all can implement in our businesses.

As always, our Symposium sessions are tailored to reflect member feedback and suggestions from past events and are designed to maximize audience interaction and provide practical takeaways. Here’s what you can expect:

• Legal Trends and Recruiting Wisdom from Law Firm Leaders
• A Data-Driven Discussion on Laterals Who Stick
• What Candidates Aren’t Saying: Financial Doubts That Can Kill Deals
• The Devil is in the Details: An Insider’s Guide to the LPQ
• Beating the Counteroffer: How to Anticipate and Head Off Counteroffer Acceptances
• For Legal Recruiters Only—The Nuts and Bolts of Candidate Outreach (Episode 2)
• For Law Firms Only—Innovative Strategies for Integrating Groups as well as Individual Lateral Hires
• Sticky Recruiting Situations, and
• Our ever-popular round tables, including Winning the Talent War: How Law Firm Recruiting and Marketing Teams Are Partnering to Attract Top Legal Talent; What Law Firm Recruiting Professionals Like/Dislike; Ethics Under Pressure: Where the Code Gets Tested; and Building a Multi-Million-Dollar Recruiting Practice

We’re especially excited about our keynote presenter, Ted McKenna, the best-selling co-author of The Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently and The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision. He’s an accomplished researcher and sought-after speaker and advisor to sales, business development, and customer experience teams around the world. Ted has held numerous executive leadership positions in product, strategy, research, advisory, and enablement for Tethr, Russell Reynolds (executive recruiting), and CEB (now, a part of Gartner).

Ted will discuss a growing business development problem facing providers of professional services, such as legal recruiters: declining loyalty. And, packed with eye-opening data, counter-intuitive insights, and robust case examples, his presentation will reveal “The Activator Advantage” which provides the roadmap for any recruiter or firm leader looking to chart a path to greater client and candidate retention, revenue growth, and firm profitability.

Most importantly, the Symposium agenda incorporates plenty of networking time to visit sponsors via exhibit booths, reconnect with old friends, meet new members, and interact with clients. As one of our Annual Conference attendees said: “The in-between moments, the hallway conversations, the breaks, and the evening events, where I had candid 1:1 time with some of the sharpest legal recruiters in the country—that’s where insight lives and the magic truly happens.”

Special thanks go out to our reception host, Jackson Walker, and many thanks to all our sponsors for making this amazing event possible. For more details about the Symposium, see https://nalsc.org/events/.

Speaking of events, we’re planning another Regional event shortly after the Symposium. Mark your calendars for October 15, 2026, when we’ll gather at the Philadelphia offices of Stradley Ronon to help them celebrate their firm’s centennial as well as our country’s 250th anniversary of its founding in the City of Brotherly Love. The speaker, —-, will discuss—- as we enjoy the opportunity to grab a drink and snacks, and mix and mingle with fellow NALSC members.

We’re planning similar Regional Meetups around the country in the future. For example, Mintz Levin is tentatively slated to sponsor an event in San Francisco next May. Other law firm supporting members, please let us know at info@nalsc.org if you would like to host an event in one of your offices.

NALSC also continues to strengthen our relationship with NALP, the National Association of Law Placement. As in past years, NALSC sent a contingent of our Board members and stalwarts to NALP’s Annual Education Conference—this time in Hollywood, Florida—to staff a resource booth, interact with the 1500+ law firm and law school attendees, and further spread the message of NALSC and our Code of Ethics. We were pleased to have members of our Law Firm Advisory Committee join us in greeting conference attendees in our resource booth, as well. Several Board members and long-time NALSC members also spoke on panels, further demonstrating our organization’s value to and deep knowledge of the legal industry.

I want to extend my thanks to our headquarters staff, helmed by our amazing Executive Director, Stephanie Ankus, and ably assisted by consultants Alice Perez and Valerie Fontaine, who keep everything operating smoothly.

Kudos, also, to the NALSC Newsletter Committee, chaired by Jennifer Gillman, assisted by former Newsletter editor Valerie Fontaine, along with the contributions of committee members Kevin Bacon, Tiffany Ambrose, and Alyssa Lerner for another “action-packed” issue. Past issues of the semi-annual NALSC Newsletter can be accessed through the NALSC website at https://www.nalsc.org/newsletters/.

I hope to see you at the Fall Symposium, kicking off on September 24th.