Hiring Professionals is Changing: Culture Wars and the Battle for Talent

Legal recruiting in 2022 is a story of disrupted supply chains. Law firms have faced the same labor pool disruptions as other financial and professional service firms during the Great Resignation.

In this episode of the Law, Policy & Markets: Milbank Conversations podcast, Hiring Professionals is Changing: Culture Wars and the Battle for Talent, host Allan Marks speaks with Milbank hiring partner Alexander Lees and Milbank’s new Director of Global Legal Recruiting, Alexandra Paslawsky, about using innovative outreach and technology to broaden and diversify the firm’s supply of junior and mid-level associates, and how the shift toward more flexibility with remote or hybrid work affects professional development, client service and social cohesion. They also offer advice to law students and lateral candidates on differentiating among firms by asking about values, culture, and purpose, noting that the quest for meaningful work increasingly shapes lawyers’ careers.

About the Speakers:

Alexander Lees is a partner in Milbank’s New York office of Milbank. He is a hiring partner and a member of the firm’s Financial Restructuring and Litigation & Arbitration Groups. Mr. Lees is a commercial litigator whose practice focuses primarily on bankruptcy, insolvency, and restructuring-related litigation. He has represented creditors, debtors, private equity sponsors, official committees, ad hoc groups, collateral agents, and bidders in bankruptcy proceedings and other litigation matters arising out of insolvency scenarios and financial restructuring transactions.

Alexandra Paslawsky is the firm’s Director of Global Legal Recruiting, and a former Milbank associate. She was previously a member of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration Group, and her practice focused on regulatory investigations and white-collar defense, as well as complex commercial litigation in federal and state court.

Podcast host Allan Marks is a Milbank partner and one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Mr. Marks also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at both the Law School and the Haas School of Business.

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