Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris White. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chris, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

When I first thought about pursuing a career in legal recruiting, I was concerned about the sales component. There can be pressure to sell: recruiters typically only get paid when they place candidates. Many large recruiting firms have quotas that recruiters have to meet as well. This can lead to unfair sales tactics, lack of consideration of candidate needs, hasty approaches, and negative outcomes for candidates. It is the main reason why recruiters can have a bad reputation.

For most people, their careers are one of the most important aspects of their lives. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I thought I was pressuring people to make a wrong decision.

Thankfully, I have found it possible to earn a living while recruiting ethically. Both at my previous firm, Gunther Group, and my own firm, Navigate Legal Search, there is no quota. I take my time to listen to individual needs and goals. I take a comprehensive approach without forcing or coercing candidates while doing my best to provide value to them. I believe this is a big differentiator, particularly compared to many larger recruiting firms.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a legal recruiter, I help attorneys find new opportunities and law firms and companies locate legal talent. I speak to attorneys who are seeking to make a move and help them find opportunities. I also help law firms and companies fill their needs by finding the right attorneys for their roles. In either case, I take a comprehensive approach and do my best to fully navigate each search.

I began legal recruiting because I love people and have come to realize it is the energy that drives my career passion. Recruiting is a very people-focused business, so it allows me to utilize this love and leverage my other skills. These skills include practicing law at both large and midsized law firms, so I understand key challenges attorneys face in private practice and can empathize when they are considering a change. Furthermore, I experienced being laid off as an attorney during the Great Recession, so I appreciate the job search from the candidate perspective. I also previously started and ran my own beer tour business where I had to be resourceful and creative, which comes in handy when conducting searches for attorney candidates or law firm and company clients.

I’m proud that I can recruit the way I want to: comprehensively, honestly, and ethically. I love helping people, and legal recruiting has been a tailor-made way for me to do it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve had to pivot many times in my unorthodox career path. I graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 2007 and obtained a position as a corporate associate at a large Chicago law firm where I handled M&A, securities, and other corporate matters. Then, the Great Recession hit, and deal work dried up. I was laid off in early 2010.

I deeply empathize with people who have been laid off because I’ve gone through it, and it was deeply challenging and tough for me. There were few relevant corporate attorney jobs available at that time. While applying to job applications, I stumbled across a job for something completely unrelated: a food tour guide. Unlike the corporate attorney jobs, I was offered the job! I took it and soon led groups of 15 people around Chicago, tasting delicious food and drink and teaching about Chicago’s colorful history. I loved it.

In 2011, I decided to spin off my own beer tour company. Fortunately, it was the same time as the craft beer scene exploded in Chicago. I had an absolute blast leading groups around bars and breweries in Chicago, tasting beer and teaching about it and Chicago history.

Unfortunately, while the company was a blast, it did not fully pay my bills. After four years from being laid off from my corporate attorney position, I obtained another attorney position at a smaller firm through a friend in 2014. While I enjoyed the people, I quickly realized the work wasn’t for me.

It was back to the drawing board.

I took some time to think about where I wanted to take my career. I knew I really enjoyed people. I had experience in as a lawyer. Finally, it clicked: legal recruiting. It is a people-focused profession, and I could apply my legal industry knowledge and experience while helping people find new positions. Thankfully, it has been a complete match.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Strangely, I’ve had to unlearn a lesson from law school and practicing as an attorney: the expectation of perfection. To make it to a top law school, graduate, pass the bar, and practice at a large law firm, precision (or close to it) is expected. You can’t fail many tests and you can’t make too many errors. It is a real meritocracy: the college students who obtain the highest grades and test scores are admitted into the top law schools, the best students from those schools obtain the top jobs and the highest rated and paying firms, and the attorneys who last the longest in private practice withstand the intense work environment without making many mistakes. This training makes sense: clients spend a lot of money for lawyers to help them, and expectations are high. Mistakes can lead to disastrous results for companies and individuals.

However, this emphasis on perfection is, in my opinion, extraordinarily damaging to starting a business and being entrepreneurial. Almost any businessperson advises that you may need to fail fast and often to understand the business and the market, develop skills, and pivot if necessary. Starting a business covers so much new territory that it is practically impossible to be perfect. I’ve found my legal education and training sometimes makes me too cautious, too risk averse, cause overthinking, and can hold me back at times. I’ve really had to work on being okay with making mistakes to progress in business and related tasks.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.navigatelegalsearch.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/navigate-legal-search
• Twitter: https://x.com/navigatesearch