Rachel Hyland meets Recruitment Manager, Georgie Rylance.
Since Georgie joined TLD, our team of Client Legal Directors has grown significantly with high calibre, experienced General Counsel swelling our ranks. I meet up with Georgie to ask how the recruitment process works and to find out about TLD Recruit – the new venture she’s spearheading.
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Q&A with Georgie Rylance
Georgie, can you tell me how you ended up working at TLD?
I set up my own independent legal recruitment business in September 2020 with a very clear strategy – to work with like-minded people who respected my profession. I naturally gravitated towards my clients who offer an alternative working model for lawyers, one of whom introduced me to TLD. Our values were very much aligned, and I was excited to introduce candidates to the business. After a short time, we agreed to work on a more retained basis, and I was delighted to become the Recruitment Manager for the business in 2021.
How does the recruitment process work?
We carefully select candidates for TLD, not exclusively based on experience but also on values, drivers, motivations, and communication style. The business model isn’t for everyone. To be successful, you need to be committed to developing your own career and you need to be able to work well with a variety of businesses.
Every suitable candidate has an initial conversation with me over video link and this enables the candidate to fully understand how the model works, the practicalities around it and for me to get to know the candidate better. We have produced a brochure that outlines all the information we feel a candidate needs at the early stages and this is accessible via our website and provided by me after our initial call. A director will then have a secondary call to delve deeper and to answer any further questions.
In the spirit of full transparency, successful candidates are then given access to a wealth of information including the Consultancy Agreement, an anonymised document showing what our lawyers earn in the first 12 months of joining, a skills audit and an IR35 document.
Once suitability has been established and both parties want to proceed, we arrange a face-to-face meeting to discuss specifics around the individual’s career goals both in terms of income but also around work/life balance. At this point a business plan will start to form.
Each candidate that joins TLD will go through a very clear onboarding process which starts before the contract has been signed. There will be a strategy in place for each individual based on skillset, location, capacity, goals and personality.
Once the candidate has joined, they will be fully supported by our business development manager Debbie and have constant communication with the Directors.
What do you look for in a Client Legal Director? What would your ideal candidate be?
We look for highly skilled in-house lawyers with at least 10 years’ PQE. Our lawyers have spent most of their careers in-house and many have held significant board level roles.
We are in a fortunate position in that we already have specialists within the business including in corporate law, real estate, employment law and IP. Therefore, we look for those with a generalist background as this enables them to be adaptable and therefore attractive to a wider remit of clients.
In terms of sector background, we work across all sectors (apart from financial services), and we are particularly interested in those with a varied background and/or those in growth areas like tech and manufacturing.
Eighty-five percent of our clients do not have an existing legal department and our lawyers need to be confident to work at a high level as the sole in-house lawyer. We look for adaptability, confidence and for those who can work across several sectors at any one time.
Tell me more about TLD Recruit. How did that come about and what are you hoping to achieve?
TLD Recruit is a natural step for The Legal Director. Having established an impressive portfolio of both SME clients and high-quality in-house lawyers, we see that there are plenty of permanent recruitment opportunities we can assist with where a TLD lawyer is not required. For example, some candidates may decide consultancy is not for them and want to remain in a permanent role. They may instead be interested in working with TLD Recruit to assist in growing an internal legal team.
On the other side, some businesses may not require a TLD lawyer because they want to recruit someone on a permanent and/or full-time basis and we are able to assist with this level of recruitment. There are also occasions where a business requires a less senior resource which we can also help with. It’s about giving our clients wrap around care and supporting them with all their legal needs as they grow and change.
If you would like to know more about how Georgie can support you to find work or to fill a legal position, connect with her on LinkedIn and find out more about her experience from her team profile.
