Major, Lindsey & Africa Names Executive Director
September 28, 2020 – Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA) has appointed Carlos Pauling as executive director within the partner practice group. He will oversee the performance of partner recruiters in the firm’s East Coast offices, including New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. In addition, he will be responsible for developing a strategy to grow lateral recruiting at a time when law firms are looking to their strategic partners to recruit the best legal talent.
“Carlos is a proven relationship-builder and deal-closer with our law firm clients, over a few short years he has cultivated the majority of his relationships with top-level firm management,” said Kirsten Vasquez, partner and vice president, law firm recruiting and interim legal solutions. “He has the ability to meet people and organizations where they are in order to move them forward, and his personalized and situational approach to leadership will serve MLA and our industry-leading partner recruiting experts well.”
Mr. Pauling joined MLA’s law firm management group in 2017 and was promoted to managing director in 2019. In that role, he led executive-level searches in marketing, business development, finance, human resources, and diversity and inclusion for AmLaw 200 firms across the country. “Because of his robust and unique experience throughout the legal profession, Carlos understands the particular challenges law firms face in today’s lateral marketplace,” Major, Lindsey & Africa said.
“I am extremely excited and profoundly humbled to be assuming this important leadership role at a time when the legal community, like other industries, is at a unique inflection point coming out of this global pandemic,” said Mr. Pauling. “I look forward to working with our amazing team of partner recruiters to continue to deliver our law firm clients the very best advice and service in the industry.”
Prior to joining Major, Lindsey & Africa, Mr. Pauling had two decades of legal, banking, business and financial services experience representing some of the largest corporations and financial institutions in the world both as associate general counsel for Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo) and as an associate attorney at Moore & Van Allen, PLLC. He also served in numerous executive roles for private equity firms and their portfolio companies.
Legal Recruiters
Founded in 1982, Major, Lindsey & Africa is a legal-focused search firm with more than 25 offices worldwide. It has a track record of general counsel, corporate counsel, partner, associate and law firm management placements. The firm also provides law firms and companies with highly specialized legal professionals on project, interim and temporary-to-permanent hire basis. Major, Lindsey & Africa has more than 25 offices and 200-plus search consultants around the world.
Major, Lindsey & Africa recently added Cynthia Barnardiston as a managing director in the interim legal group. Based in the Singapore office, she focuses on building MLA’s interim legal group in the region, which provides in-house legal departments and law firms with talent resources to address skill gaps, headcount shortage or other bandwidth issues. Ms. Barnardiston has nearly 15 years in the industry, she has successfully advised clients in Europe and in Asia-Pacific on talent solutions across multiple industries including legal, technology, and oil and gas.
“We’ve seen our interim legal group grow from strength to strength in Europe and are delighted to have Cynthia leading our growth efforts in Asia-Pacific,” said Brent Harris, president EMEA and APAC. “Cynthia has a great reputation in the Singapore interim market and we are pleased to welcome someone with her expertise and experience into the MLA Asia-Pacific family.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
