Retained, research-led executive search for the senior Legal Tech, Legal Innovation and Business Development leaders that law firms and LegalTech companies depend on, delivered across New York, London, the US and UK.
As a boutique executive search firm specialising in Legal Tech, Innovation and Legal Business Development, we are retained by Am Law 100, Magic Circle and global law firms to find the leaders at the intersection of law, technology and growth. The most impactful hires are seldom on the open market, so we deliver proven, research-led search led personally by a Managing Consultant.
In a legal market reshaped by AI adoption, data-driven business development, and intensifying competition for talent, it is crucial to stay ahead of the curve and continuously adapt to new demands. We take pride in our ability to apply our expertise across the legal landscape, whether we are breaking ground in emerging areas such as Legal Tech and innovation leadership, or maintaining a strong presence in established Business Development and Marketing functions for Am Law 100, Magic Circle and global law firms. Our proactive, research-led approach and specialist knowledge of how law firms buy, grow, and hire allow us to deliver tailored search solutions that meet the precise needs of our clients.
Our priority is to understand the unique needs of our clients and provide tailored search solutions that deliver results. A highly personalised approach begins with a face-to-face consultation to gain insight into your firm, its culture, partnership dynamics, and the ideal candidate profile, whether for a Director of Innovation, a Business Development leader, or a senior AI engineering hire. We work closely with our clients to navigate the intricacies of salary, package and partnership expectations across markets such as New York, London and the wider US, while also offering a more diverse and inclusive approach to talent supply that often reaches beyond the legal sector itself.
Managing Consultant
James Shenton is Co founder and Managing Consultant at Opus Resourcing, bringing over 30 years of experience delivering executive search and specialist recruitment across technology and commercial go to market functions for technology companies and Global Law Firms & US Big Law firms. Known for his consultative and data led approach, James operates at the intersection of technology, commercial strategy, and leadership hiring.
Strategic Advisor - US Legal Search
Lacie Marshall is the Founder and CEO of Onward Recruiting, with over two decades of experience building high-performing legal teams for law firms and legal departments across the US. In partnership with Opus Resourcing, Lacie provides an insider’s perspective on legal talent strategy, helping firms move beyond transactional hiring toward strategic, data-informed, and future-ready workforce planning.
Here we recruit the commercial leaders who help partners win and grow work. That spans Chief Marketing Officers setting firm-wide strategy, Directors and Associate Directors of Business Development aligned to specific practice areas such as private equity, investment funds or litigation, and Client Development Directors managing the firm’s most important relationships. As firms professionalise around profitability, we are increasingly retained for Strategic Pricing Directors and Practice Management Directors, roles that barely existed a decade ago and are now central to how leading firms compete.
These are the hires that turn AI and technology investment into something a firm can actually use. We search for Directors of Innovation and Heads of Legal Technology who set the strategy, Practice Innovation Managers and Legal Innovation Officers who drive adoption across fee-earners, and the technical leadership behind the tools themselves, including AI Engineering Managers, AI Tech Leads and Heads of Product for Legal Technology. Knowledge Management Directors often sit alongside these roles where firms are building structured, data-led foundations for innovation.
Legal Services | Business Development
New York | NYC
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I had the opportunity to work with James at Opus Resourcing, and I’m grateful for all of his help throughout the process. He was always responsive, thorough, and willing to make time to answer questions or discuss concerns. What I appreciated most was how seriously he took every question I had. If he didn’t have an answer right away, he would find the right person, provide additional resources, or follow up quickly to make sure I got the information I needed. I always felt informed and supported. James was also a strong advocate for me and played a big role in helping me land a great opportunity. I would gladly recommend him to anyone looking for a recruiter who is knowledgeable, communicative, and invested in helping people succeed.
Ed Reed - Director Investment Funds - Placed at Kirkland & Ellis
When we set out to build our NYC based practice-specific strategic legal business development team, we knew we needed a search partner who could truly understand the complexity of what we were trying to accomplish, not just fill roles but help shape a high-performing function in one of the most demanding legal environments and complex markets in the world. James Shenton and Lacie Marshall exceeded those expectations for us at every turn.
CMO Testimonial Am Law 10 - US
Legal executive search is a retained, research-led method for hiring senior leaders into law firms and LegalTech companies. Unlike contingency recruitment, the search firm works exclusively on the mandate, maps the entire market, and approaches qualified candidates directly, including those who are not actively job-seeking. Opus Resourcing applies this method specifically to Legal Tech, Legal Innovation, and Legal Business Development leadership roles.
We deliver searches across the US and UK, with particular strength in New York, London and across major US legal markets such as California and Chicago. Through our partnership with Onward Recruiting, we offer genuine on-the-ground insight in the US legal market alongside our UK and European reach.
We are retained by Am Law 100, Magic Circle and global law firms, as well as high-growth LegalTech businesses. We typically work on senior, market-facing and leadership mandates where discretion and sector knowledge matter most.
Timelines vary by role and market, but our research-led method is built for hard-to-fill mandates. In one recent Legal Tech search for a specialist AI engineer, we delivered four interviewing candidates within six weeks and filled the role within the month, after previous recruiters had failed to produce viable leads.
No, and increasingly they should not. Many of the most successful LegalTech hires come from adjacent industries such as fintech, SaaS, cybersecurity, and enterprise software, where candidates have already built scalable AI and automation solutions.
Bringing in talent from outside the legal sector allows firms to apply a different lens to long-standing challenges. These individuals are not constrained by traditional legal processes or legacy ways of working. Instead, they bring fresh ideas, product thinking, and experience of building user-centric, scalable technology in fast-moving environments.
For example, candidates from fintech or SaaS often have experience deploying AI at scale, working with complex datasets, and delivering continuous product improvement. When applied to legal workflows, this mindset can unlock new efficiencies, improve client experience, and accelerate innovation in ways that purely legal backgrounds may not.
Importantly, this cross-industry approach also reduces reliance on an already limited talent pool. Rather than competing for the same small group of “legal plus AI” candidates, firms can access a much broader, more diverse set of talent with proven technical capabilities.
As LegalTech continues to evolve, the firms that will move fastest are those willing to rethink traditional hiring criteria and embrace talent that brings new perspectives, new ways of thinking, and proven experience from outside the legal industry.
Understand the importance of solving the AI talent gap in LegalTech for law firms and drive innovation within your practice.
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We're excited to work with you! Please fill out the form and a member of the team will be in touch very soon.
+44 (0) 1580 857 179
+1 (929) 296-8275
info@opusresourcing.com