Lori J. Carpenter

“I love what I do. Every day, I help organizations build strong teams and, through that process, play an integral role in people’s lives. That gives me great purpose.” – Lori

With more than 35 years of experience in legal executive search, Lori Carpenter has earned a reputation as one of the profession’s most trusted recruiters and advisors. As the founder and President of Carpenter Legal Search, Inc. (CLS), a nationally recognized legal search and consulting firm she established in 1994, Lori leads the firm’s management and business development efforts while remaining deeply engaged with clients and actively involved in retained General Counsel and other senior-level search engagements for corporate clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to emerging growth enterprises.

Over the course of her career, Lori has partnered with corporations nationwide to recruit exceptional legal talent. Clients view her not simply as a recruiter, but as a trusted advisor whose counsel often extends well beyond a particular search engagement to include legal department structure, talent acquisition strategies, succession planning, compensation trends, and broader developments affecting the legal profession. She regularly consults with CLOs, General Counsel, CEOs, CHROs, Boards of Directors, and other senior leaders, helping organizations think not only about the talent they need today, but also the leadership they will need in the future.

A defining characteristic of Lori’s approach is her ability to develop authentic, long-term relationships with both clients and candidates. Through her trademarked Focused on the Fit® methodology, she looks far beyond credentials and technical qualifications to understand an organization’s culture, leadership style, values, and long-term objectives. This enables her to identify individuals who possess not only the right experience, but also the personal and leadership qualities necessary to succeed within a specific environment. Her philosophy is rooted in the belief that the most successful placements occur when there is genuine alignment between an organization’s needs and an individual’s goals, values, and aspirations.

Lori’s leadership and contributions to the legal profession have been recognized nationally. She was named to Hunt Scanlon’s inaugural Legal Recruiting Power 100 and to Lawdragon’s 100 Global Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting. She also has served as a judge for Lawyers on the Fast Track for The Legal Intelligencer and has held numerous leadership positions within the National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC), including multiple terms on its Board of Directors and Executive Committee as Treasurer.

Lori’s combination of industry expertise, strategic insight, genuine personal investment, and dedication to finding the right fit has helped organizations build high-performing legal teams and leadership structures designed for long-term success. Whether advising a General Counsel on succession planning, helping a company build or expand a legal department, or conducting a critical executive search, Lori is known for bringing integrity, perspective, and a deeply personal commitment to every client engagement and professional relationship.

• Perhaps the biggest challenge in filling a general counsel role is wading through a sea of candidates and finding the person whose natural attributes and instincts best align with the culture and needs of the company. Lori is second to none in both finding the best pool of candidates and working through a process of discernment to achieve the perfect fit of candidate and company. Sometimes, a company needs a lawyer who will be a steady hand during chaotic times. Sometimes, a company needs a lawyer who will challenge assumptions and help the company reinvent itself. Lori works to understand a company’s culture, its strengths, and its challenges. Her deep experience has endowed her with a keen instinct for distinguishing between stated culture and real culture, and this very same instinct allows her to accurately assess the same gap on the candidate side.
  

Finally, Lori has a natural ability to connect with people in all industries and from all walks of life. She is the rare person who isn’t intimidated by and doesn’t condescend to anyone. She’s both confident and humble. These attributes allow her to cut through the surface reality that companies and candidates alike show to the world, to get to know the reality of who they are, and to recommend connections based on that reality. There isn’t a better recruiter operating in the legal search space today. – R. Christopher Anderson, General Counsel, Robindale Energy Services, Inc.

• I found the experience both efficient and strategic. CLS demonstrated a deep understanding of ATI’s business and culture, which made the search process highly targeted and effective. They didn’t just present qualified candidates — they brought forward individuals whose experience and mindset aligned with our culture.  Their ability to translate our evolving business needs into a candidate profile that balanced technical legal expertise with commercial acumen was very helpful. – Vaishali Shah Bhatia, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, ATI Inc.
• Lori was a huge help to me getting to know Restek as a different kind of company and to really understand the kind of General Counsel they were searching for to be their very first one. She really guided me to learn more and more about senior management as well as the Restek culture. However, perhaps more importantly, she was both a sounding board and a “counselor” to help me through the job search process which is usually very stressful and has certain good days and sometimes some frustrating days. However, Lori was always ready to keep me focused in a very even keeled way to remain persistent and patient at the same time. I really valued her counsel to get to the finish line and find the right fit for me at this stage in my career. I can’t say enough great things about Carpenter Legal Search and everyone there! – Frank V. McNamara, III, Vice President, General Counsel, Restek Corporation