Buffkin / Baker Recruits General Counsel for Shearwater Health
June 16, 2025 – Legal recruiting continues to be a hot area for search firms. Lawyers employed by government agencies in particular have been on the move as a result of changes in government administrations, according to Hunt Scanlon Media. Demand for legal work is expected to be robust as individuals, businesses and all levels of government require legal services in the U.S. and internationally as global economies expand.
A general counsel, chief counsel or chief legal officer is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a company or a governmental department. In a business, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO. Their duties involve overseeing and identifying the legal issues in all departments and their interrelation, including engineering, design, marketing, sales, distribution, credit, finance, human resources, production, as well as corporate governance and business policy. Partner-led executive search firm Buffkin / Baker recently assisted in the recruitment of Matthew Thompson as general counsel and chief compliance officer of Shearwater Health in Nashville, TN.
With over 15 years of experience in corporate governance, compliance, and M&A, Mr. Thompson brings extensive expertise to support Shearwater’s continued expansion. He joins Shearwater Health from Specialty Dental Brands where he worked for five years and held the general counsel and chief legal officer roles. Previously, Mr. Thompson was the assistant general counsel, corporate and securities at Delek US Holdings. He also worked at Change Healthcare as counsel, M&A and corporate securities. There he was the primary counsel for domestic and international acquisitions, divestitures, and other strategic corporate transactions.
In his role with Shearwater Health, Mr. Thompson will oversee all legal aspects of the company and will manage legal and compliance team members in the U.S. and Philippines. He will ensure the effectiveness of the compliance program and will also function as an independent and objective body that reviews, promotes, and evaluates organizational risk and compliance issues/concerns across Shearwater Health. Mr. Thompson will report to the company’s CEO, Tom Kendrot.
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Shearwater Health, founder of the nation’s first clinical process outsourcing (CPO) model, offers tailored and scalable clinical decision support solutions for healthcare organizations, including payers, providers, and workers’ compensation and disability clients. Dedicated to enhancing healthcare through clinician-driven processes, Shearwater’s global team of nearly 6,000 highly skilled clinicians expertly handle both administrative and complex clinical tasks.
Firm Composed of Industry Leaders
Buffkin / Baker is a partner-led executive search firm specializing in healthcare, higher education, private equity, technology/digital, consumer, and non-profit sectors. Each partner, a leader in their field, brings over a decade of retained search experience, contributing to a collective total of more than 300 years in search and over 400 years in industry and operational expertise. The firm operates from multiple locations, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Cleveland, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Simons Island, Tampa, Washington, D.C., and Winston-Salem. Buffkin / Baker is a member of Panorama, a global community of over 400 leadership experts working together in 70+ office locations to promote a diverse perspective on leadership, embracing creative thinking, and sharing our expertise and experience to bring our clients the very best results.
Inside the High Demand for General Counsel Leaders
The legal and compliance market is booming. The number of in-house lawyers and law firm partners with aspirations of becoming a general counsel is at an all-time high. Unfortunately, landing the position is a challenge. Every search has specific criteria established by the executive leadership team and board which must be met. Some of the criteria could include specific industry experience or business knowledge, a background in public company securities and governance, as well as expertise in regulatory, compliance, litigation, M&A, employment/labor law, intellectual property, government relations, leadership, career track record, law firm training, law school ranking, and the list goes on, according to Robert Barker, co-founder and managing partner of BarkerGilmore, which specializes in building corporate legal and compliance teams.
“Keep in mind cultural fit and soft skills which cannot be found on the resume are equally important,” he said. “And diversity can play a major factor in the CEO and board’s final decision. Most are using the general counsel position as a means of adding diversity to the executive leadership team,” he added. The demand for excellence is understandable as the general counsel plays such a critical role. One wrong answer or move during the interview process can lead to immediate disqualification. “Even after an offer is made, any red flag demonstrating a lack of judgment or ethics discovered during the background investigation will lead to a retraction,” said Mr. Barker.
Craig Buffkin, the firm’s founder, serves as the managing partner, and as head of the private equity and transformation practices, where he is actively involved with client engagements and business development. He has completed search work at the board, executive and senior level both nationally and internationally for a wide range of private, public, venture-backed, and private equity-back companies.
Based in Winston Salem, NC, Martin Baker has been in executive search for more than 22 years. In addition to his role as managing partner, he is also head of the firm’s higher education practice. He previously worked in the Atlanta office of Korn Ferry, where he developed search strategy and executed searches for numerous senior-level appointments. He began his career as a research associate with Saxton Bampfylde, an executive search and management assessment firm in London. He has conducted searches for the positions of CEO, CFO, CIO, provost, dean, director, and professor, having worked on over 350 searches throughout his career.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
