Head of Recruiting

Who We Are

Founded in June of 2025, Catalex is an aggregator and the leading law firm MSO for boutique, insurance defense law firms. We empower firm owners to grow more quickly and more profitably while we deliver world-class operational, financial, and strategic support. By bringing capital and innovation to a traditionally conservative sector, we're redefining how legal businesses grow, scale, and measure success.

As we continue our rapid expansion, the single biggest driver of our partner firms' growth is talent — the attorneys who serve their clients every day. That's where you come in.

Opportunity

The Recruiter will own attorney recruiting across the Catalex network, keeping every partner firm fully staffed with people who genuinely fit that firm's culture and values. This is a hands-on, build-it-yourself role: you will run a direct-outreach recruiting engine in the insurance defense market, cultivate trusted relationships with hiring partners at each firm, codify our recruiting playbook, and manage a bench of external recruiters to cover every need your own desk can't. It is ideal for a recruiter who wants to own outcomes including speed to fill, needs filled, and budget to fill, who wants to build out a recruiting organization over time, and who wants their compensation to reflect those outcomes directly.

This is also a fantastic opportunity for a legal search professional to build expertise in the rapidly emerging market of private equity backed legal MSOs, where Catalex is the definitive market leader with respect to insurance defense law firms.

Overview & Responsibilities

This role is based in Southern California. We are hybrid and typically meet in person once per week. The role recruits insurance defense attorneys (associates, and non-equity partners) for Catalex partner firms, through direct outreach and managed external vendors. Reports to the founding partner.

Direct Recruiting & Pipeline

• Source attorney candidates primarily through direct outreach through cold outreach, referral cultivation, and maintaining strong vendor relationships to deliver 25+ hires per year.
• Manage paralegal recruiting processes for partner firm needs across the network.
• Keep pipelines warm for roles that are coming but not yet open.

Culture & Values Matching

• Learn what makes each partner firm distinct, their values, working style, partnership dynamics; and match the right candidates to the right firm, not just an open seat.
• Screen for fit as rigorously as for credentials; placements are measured on retention, with a target of 75% of placements still in seat at 12 months.

Firm Relationships

• Build trusted-advisor relationships with hiring partners and back offices at every firm in the network, so firms bring you into workforce planning early.
• Communicate proactively so hiring partners always know where their searches stand.

Process & Speed

• Codify the recruiting playbook: document sourcing, screening, firm-matching, and offer processes so they can be run consistently and at scale.
• Own pipeline velocity: target a 30-day median from need identified to accepted offer, with no candidate sitting in a pipeline stage longer than 5 business days and no critical seat open beyond 60 days.
• Track and report recruiting metrics (outreach volume, conversion rates, time-to-fill, retention) and use them to drive decisions.

Recruiter Network Management

• Ensure all major attorney and paralegal needs across the network are met by building and managing a bench of external recruiters and agencies.
• Select vendors, negotiate fee terms, hold them accountable for results, and decide which roles to work directly versus hand out.
• Think like an owner about total cost of hiring, weighing direct-sourcing effort against agency fees to fill every need at the best overall cost.

Ideal Candidate

• Proven recruiter with a track record of hires made through direct sourcing, not just inbound applications or job postings.
• Legal recruiting experience strongly preferred, ideally in insurance defense or adjacent litigation practices; understands attorney
• career paths and motivations.
• History of placements that stick: can speak to retention of past placements as evidence of quality matching.
• Experience managing external agencies or search firms, or clear aptitude for it.
• Systems-builder: has created or improved recruiting processes others could run, and is disciplined with ATS/CRM tooling and data.
• Strong relationship-building and communication skills with senior stakeholders, including law firm partners.
• Based in Southern California and able to join the team in person once per week.
• Embodies the Catalex non-negotiables: intellectual horsepower (IQ), humble servant leadership (EQ), and the will to win when the chips are down (AQ).

Compensation & Benefits

Catalex anticipates a base salary of $100,000–125,000 for the Recruiter, plus quarterly bonuses for attorney and meeting budget expectations, with target total compensation of $200,000–250,000 all-in at target performance. Bonuses are earned on placement and cost-efficiency basis weighted primarily toward making the right hires, with the balance tied to filling needs at or under budget.

The compensation described above is subject to change, dependent on the candidate's qualifications and experience, and could be higher or lower than the range. Benefits include health, medical, dental, and 401(k).