Our core practice
Northside Recruiting is a Chicago-based legal recruiting firm. We place attorneys, partners, in-house counsel, and legal professionals with law firms and companies nationwide, and we run every search with senior attention and real discretion.
Who we place
Each one works differently, so we treat them differently.
We also place paralegals and legal staff for clients we know well.
Where we go deep
Legal hiring turns on the substance of your work, not a job title. These are the practices we know best.
Plain answers
A legal recruiter identifies, evaluates, and presents attorneys and legal professionals for law firm and in-house positions. A good one also helps candidates weigh opportunities, prepare for interviews, negotiate offers, and run a lateral search without their current employer finding out.
When you want to move without broadcasting it, when you want honest market context on compensation and firms, or when you simply do not have time to run a search on top of billable work. A recruiter is most valuable when the move matters and discretion matters more.
Candidates never pay us anything. Employers pay a contingency fee, a percentage of first-year salary agreed in writing before the search starts, due only when the hire is made.
How it works
The same three steps whether you are hiring or moving.
For candidates, that means your resume goes nowhere without your consent, ever. For employers, a 30-minute intake on the seat, the group, and what success looks like.
We know who is where, who is movable, and what the market pays. Employers get a handful of vetted, genuinely interested candidates, not a stack of resumes.
We manage the awkward parts: references, comp negotiation, bar admission logistics, resignation timing, and keeping everyone honest until the start date sticks.
How we protect you
Legal hiring is a small world. Here is exactly how we keep a search from ever getting back to the wrong people.
We never send your materials or name your identity to a firm without your explicit approval for that specific opportunity. No blind submissions, no resume blasts, no exceptions.
Rather than papering the market with your resume, we target a short, deliberate list and move through it with your permission at each step, so word never spreads.
We flag the firms, clients, and adverse parties that could make a move awkward or impossible early, so a conflict never derails a search after it is already in motion.
For lateral partners, a leak can damage client relationships and standing. We handle portable-business detail and the LPQ on a need-to-know basis, shared only with the people who must see it.
Open now
Every listing is a real, current search we are running for a firm or legal employer.
Regulatory & Compliance
A leading global law firm is hiring a mid-level associate for the Data Privacy & Cybersecurity practice in its Washington, DC office. You'll advise clients on…
Real Estate
A leading global law firm is hiring a mid-level transactional Real Estate Associate for its New York or Chicago office. You'll represent developers, owners,…
$310,000 – $390,000
Commercial Litigation
A Houston defense firm is hiring a mid-level associate to manage their own docket of catastrophic personal injury, product liability and construction defect…
$115,000 – $175,000
Insurance Coverage
An established California law firm with offices across the state is hiring a litigation associate for its insurance and financial services group. The team…
$158,000 – $190,000
Regulatory & Compliance
A national law firm is hiring an associate for its Digital Risk Advisory & Cybersecurity team. The seat can sit in Washington, DC, Chicago, San Francisco,…
$245,000 – $345,000
Corporate & M&A
Join the U.S. Projects & Infrastructure team, part of the finance department, at a leading international law firm. This is a mid-level to senior associate seat,…
$260,000 – $390,000
Where we work
Our searches currently run from New York to California. Home base is Chicago, and it shows in how well we know this market.
Home market
The firms, the practice groups, and what legal talent here actually earns. From inside the market, not from a database.
The Chicago marketEither way, it starts with a conversation that stays between us.