Manager, Legal Recruiting & Professional Development (EMEA)

Manager, Legal Recruiting & Professional Development (EMEA)

6-Month Fixed-Term Contract | Immediate Start Available

An international law firm is seeking an experienced Manager, Legal Recruiting & Professional Development to join its EMEA HR team on a 6-month fixed-term contract. This is an excellent opportunity for a legal talent professional to take ownership of graduate recruitment, attorney development initiatives, and strategic talent projects across multiple European offices.

The successful candidate will play a key role in delivering best-in-class recruitment and professional development programmes, partnering closely with senior stakeholders, lawyers, and HR colleagues across the region.

The Role

This position combines responsibility for graduate recruitment, legal talent acquisition, and attorney professional development across EMEA.

Legal Recruiting & Graduate Hiring

• Lead and manage graduate recruitment programmes across EMEA, from attraction through to onboarding.
• Act as the primary point of contact and subject matter expert for all graduate recruitment activity.
• Manage and mentor junior recruitment team members.
• Develop and deliver recruitment marketing and employer branding initiatives.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with universities, careers services, law faculties, and student societies.
• Advise partners and hiring managers on recruitment strategies, candidate assessment, and selection processes.
• Manage vacation schemes, insight programmes, assessment centres, and related recruitment activities.
• Ensure recruitment processes support diversity, equity and inclusion objectives.
• Produce recruitment analytics and management reports to assess hiring effectiveness and candidate pipeline diversity.

Professional Development

• Partner with senior leadership to deliver attorney career development initiatives across EMEA.
• Design and implement programmes focused on trainee and associate development.
• Act as a trusted advisor to lawyers on career planning, development and progression.
• Support associate performance review processes and development frameworks.
• Oversee mentoring programmes, skills training, coaching initiatives and professional development events.
• Monitor attorney utilisation and provide recommendations regarding development and staffing needs.
• Manage exit interview processes and support the continuous improvement of the employee experience.
• Collaborate with global professional development teams on regional and firmwide initiatives.

About You

To be successful in this role, you will have:

A minimum of 5 years' experience in legal recruitment, graduate recruitment, talent development, professional development, or legal HR.

Experience gained within a law firm, professional services, consulting, or international corporate environment.

Strong knowledge of graduate recruitment and legal talent development practices.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence at senior levels.
• Experience managing multiple projects and competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Exceptional communication, organisational and analytical skills.
• Experience working across international or multi-office environments.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.
• Knowledge of legal recruitment systems and applicant tracking platforms is advantageous.

What's on Offer

• Immediate start opportunity.
• High-profile role within a respected international organisation.
• Exposure to senior stakeholders across EMEA.
• Broad remit covering both recruitment and professional development.
• Collaborative and supportive team environment.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.

Location: London (hybrid working)Contract: 6-Month Fixed-Term ContractStart Date: ASAP

If you are an experienced legal talent or professional development specialist looking for your next challenge and are available to start quickly, we'd love to hear from you

Due to the high volume of applications, we are not able to respond to all enquiries. If you have not received a response within 72 hours, please assume you have not been shortlisted at this stage, however thank you for taking the time to apply.

Ryder Reid Legal is a recruitment specialist. For over thirty years we've been connecting legal talent with many of the leading law firms in London and internationally. Follow our LinkedIn page for the latest vacancies.