Director of Administration - Public Sector

IRC Global Executive Search Partner

Donahue/Patterson Associates, IRC Global Executive Search Partners - USA/Chicago

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Director of Administration

Client/industry

Board of Admissions to the Bar of the State of Illinois

Situation

The Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar administers all processes for conducting the bi-annual bar examination in Illinois and any other type of admission to practice law in Illinois, such as transferring in from another jurisdiction. This operation is a group of about 20 people located in Springfield, Illinois as a unit of the Supreme Court of Illinois. The incumbent Director of Administration retired after over 20 years in the job. During that person's tenure, the operation was upgraded technologically and became the showcase operation for all similar groups in other jurisdictions.

Assessment

The Supreme Court required that the candidates be licensed lawyers in Illinois or be qualified to become licensed to practice law in Illinois. Our firm visited the operation at the front end of the search effort to assess the culture of the workforce in order to assess candidates effectively. We anticipated a heavy candidate flow due to the current state of the employment marketplace. The scope of candidate sourcing was national. It resulted in over 100 qualified and interested candidates.

Challenge

The main challenge was helping to guide the Board (7 volunteer members) acting as the hiring committee through the process of assessing all the interested candidates. Also challenging was the tracking of candidates and responding timely and professinally with all of the interested candidates.

Methodology/Solution

Our firm visited the client location (out of town) in order to meet the workforce and develop information regarding the average tenure of the employees, how their workplace appeared and what their work habits were like. As it turns out, average tenure was impressive indicating a satisfied and loyal workforce. This indicated that team rapport and leadership was very important in assessing candidates.

Candidate

The ultimate finalist candidates were not only lawyers but they all had highly positive attitudes and strong team leadership traits. The successful candidate (relocation was necessary) was very experienced not only in the practice of law but also had a history of strong team leadership skills in (public) elected positions where successful mediation skills were evident.

Post-mortem

To Be Determined!

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