Specialist Executive Search
Ashford Benjamin is a leading executive search firm, focusing on the legal, risk & compliance professions. The majority of our projects are retained, confidential searches for notable law firms, financial institutions, and other commercial entities, targeted on finding the highest calibre lawyers and risk & compliance professionals for key, senior vacancies.
However, unlike many of our peers, we also devote our time to offering in-depth advice and guidance to individuals on their legal careers or compliance careers. We are able to do this as we are wholly independent and 100% owned by our senior management team. This means we can offer a flexible, bespoke service to both clients and candidates, while remaining firmly committed to our values and guiding principles.
Clients
Ashford Benjamin was founded after listening carefully to what our clients needed, and with the firm intention of living up to those expectations. We maintain a client-centric approach, with every decision subject to the test question: “Does this improve our service to our client?”. Our clients have told us they want a personalised service, with expert advice from experienced professionals, and that is what we deliver.
Our clients include global law firms, top tier financial institutions and multi-national companies, and we are renowned for partnering with growing businesses and working with them closely to ensure they make the right, critical hires that achieve their growth goals. We are highly selective, partnering closely with a select number of clients in each sector, and will politely decline searches that we do not feel are in the best interest of all concerned.
Our structure, and client-centric approach, means we are able to offer a bespoke service for every search project. We take the time to clarify exactly what you are trying to achieve, to advise on the market, and to put together a unique search project to ensure success, as defined by your goals. Our flexible approach means we may work on a 3-12 month retained basis for some clients; with a weekly, detailed updated long list of senior candidates, and for other clients, we produce 3 stellar mid-level CVs within 48 hours on a contingent basis. Our model reflects your needs, as opposed to our clients needing to fit in with our business model. This is a wholly unique approach in the legal recruitment and risk & compliance recruitment markets.
Candidates
At Ashford Benjamin, we recognise that candidates are also our clients. The most common complaints we have heard over the decades we have been in the legal recruitment and risk & compliance recruitment industries, are that candidates feel they do not get a personalised service, their needs are not taken seriously, and there is a feeling the candidate is “just a number” and the consultant would prefer to put him/her into the first legal job or risk & compliance job that comes along, as opposed to the best job for that person.
We are firmly focused on helping the right professional into the right job for him/her and the employer. This is why we will take the time to thoroughly understand your needs before discussing the search on which we have been mandated, and will only consider you for short list if the opportunity is the right match for your motivations. We do not want to waste your time by putting you forward to “make up the numbers”.
Unlike most other search firms, and again, due to our unique approach and structure, we are also happy to help selected candidates with their job searches. Our reputation and length of time in the market means our expert advisors have close relationships with the majority of senior decision-makers in their specialist areas. This means we are ideally positioned to give you impartial advice on the next step in your career and represent you to a number of selected opportunities to give you the best chance of success.
We also maintain long-term relationships with legal professionals, risk & compliance professionals, regularly consulting on salary advice, the recruitment market and trends we see in the future. This means we can advise when it is a good idea to move, and, sometimes more importantly, when it is not a good idea to move. Our mission is to see the best legal and compliance professionals in the best legal jobs and risk & compliance jobs for them, which is a responsibility we take very seriously.
