The Need for Speed: Private Equity Firms Must Be More Fleet of Foot if They Want To Snap Up the Best Interim Lawyers

A trend we’re increasingly seeing is private equity firms turning to interim lawyers to assist with business-critical work. Unfortunately, another is them missing out on the best talent by hiring too slowly.

PE firms utilising temporary legal support, such as secondees, is not a recent phenomenon. In London at least, the secondee market has become fragmented – secondees are not freely available, but when they are they are becoming too expensive in line with the substantial increase in UK and US law firm salaries.

At the same time, the mantra for 2025 is cost containment. Many funds are going through restructures and redundancies. With a reluctance to hire on a permanent basis, private equity firms are looking at the ‘try before you buy’ approach of bringing in an interim lawyer. Some firms may only need ad-hoc legal support, while others could be testing whether it is worth the investment to bring in a full-time legal team member. The appeal of being able to change your mind means plenty of firms are now using interims for the first time.

This has brought PE firms into a very competitive marketplace for interim legal talent – and some have found they have not been able to secure the individuals they wanted. Often, this is due to recruitment processes that are far slower than their competitors – and that means not just other PE firms, but also law firms and investment banks. With a spate of recent partner moves in the London legal market, some law firms are looking to bring in interim lawyers to assist with their own deal flow, and they are often in a position to outgun PE firms on salary too.

Move fast or miss out

Speed matters because the most in-demand candidates see long waits for a decision as signs that a business isn’t interested in their services, or that it isn’t taking the hiring process particularly seriously. It can also lead them to take a negative view on how the firm does business overall.

We’ve seen PE houses run their interim lawyer recruitment just like they run their permanent hiring – a major strategic mistake. PE firms that put candidates through long hiring processes – more than two rounds, or subject them to extended silences before decisions are made – are regularly losing out to more nimble businesses that make quick decisions, in some cases after a single interview and within 48 hours. Investment banks, for example, are often willing to make an offer after one interview and perhaps a ‘meet and greet’ with the team. Similarly, partners at law firms are often empowered to move very quickly when hiring into their teams on an interim basis.

Often the above is attributed to the fact that companies want to ensure they are hiring the right person, which is understandable. However, the risks of hiring the wrong interim lawyer versus the wrong permanent lawyer are completely different. On the rare occasion a hire doesn’t work out, there is greater flexibility as interim lawyers would normally have shorter notice periods.

Some profiles of interim lawyers are flying off the shelves at present. A junior funds lawyer with private equity experience, for example, will be snapped up quickly. The same goes for derivatives and structured products lawyers, with some hedge funds being aggressive with their hiring through H1 2025 despite market conditions. Any firms shopping in those markets are in particular danger of being left empty-handed.

Paying the price of slow hiring

If a PE firm gets the hiring process wrong, the consequences can be significant. Regardless of if you are left with a candidate who doesn’t fit or no candidate at all, the work still has to be done. If there is not enough in-house legal resource, the increased burden on a small team can quickly lead to a lack of work-life balance, burnout and ultimately staff turnover.

If there is no in-house resource, the work will likely have to be outsourced to an external law firm, which can quickly lead to ballooning legal spend. In the very worst-case scenario, deals can easily end up delayed or paused.

Picking up the pace

Any recruitment process with a timeline measured in months is unworkable in the interim market. Firms should be targeting a maximum of two weeks to hire an interim.

One way to achieve that is to eliminate stages from the permanent hiring process. For example, some businesses conduct legal tests to ascertain technical ability. This is time-consuming for an interim role and will often deter lawyers from the interview process.

Try to make sure everyone involved is in the room for the first-round interview to avoid the need for a second round where possible. Stack interviews back-to-back to prevent long delays in decisions.

Don’t waste time trying to save money by getting a free secondee lawyer from a law firm. In the current market that just isn’t happening for anyone outside of the big buy-side firms. Not to mention you can usually only secure secondees for 3-6 months, whereas contract lengths for interim lawyers are open ended to suit your business needs.

Firms that are particularly concerned about cultural fit within their teams could consider sidestepping the process entirely by tapping into networks of interim lawyers  that are pre-vetted by specialist alternative legal service providers or by legal search firms.They can give an accurate picture of their suitability for a role.

The most important thing for PE firms to remember when making an interim legal hire is that the market is small – significantly smaller than the equivalent permanent hiring market. That means if you find a candidate who fits your requirements, move quickly. Make a decision and an offer. Don’t wait to see if someone slightly better becomes available – the chances of this happening are low and the risk that you will lose your perfectly good candidate is high. In the current PE market, where funds/deal lawyers are highly sought after, that is not a risk worth taking.

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Christian Worthy is Managing Director, Interim Legal Talent at Major, Lindsey and Africa

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of AlphaWeek or its publisher, The Sortino Group