Frequently Asked Questions
This page is a private resource created for select clients of John and Snyder, LLC. It provides clear, practical answers to common questions about our firm, our approach, and how we work together—so you have the information you need, when you need it.
FAQs
Find answers to common questions about our executive search services.
How long has John and Snyder, LLC been in business?
Founded in early 2016, John and Snyder, LLC has been led continuously by its two partners, Steve John and Jason Snyder, who have worked side by side since the firm’s inception. As the firm’s only full-time professionals, they bring a highly focused, hands-on approach to their practice. Their long-standing partnership is built on deep mutual respect, complementary strengths, and a shared commitment to excellence in their work.
What are your company’s values, and how do they aid in your searches?
John and Snyder, LLC is a highly specialized boutique executive search firm that focuses on placing the legal guardians of organizations. Our core values are anchored in the bedrock of partnership, inclusion, fairness, and the ethical stewardship of our processes and methodologies. Our clients are our primary stakeholders in any engagement, and our communications protocols reflect a commitment to the highest levels of service.
To us, an engagement is more than a transaction. We are relationship-driven consultants focused on our clients and the professionals they seek to attract. We draw close to our clients, learning about their enterprises and the cultural underpinnings of their success. Our responsibility to every client is to reflect their values in the market, carefully guarding their employment brands so that every person we interact with feels well-treated in the context of the search.
Our attention to our values builds trust, as evidenced by the number of engagements that come to us through referrals from past clients and candidates. The organizations we partner with love working with us because of the spirit of service we bring to their recruiting efforts.
What is your reputation in the market?
We are highly regarded and well-known in the market of in-house legal talent. Though we are a boutique, our relationships with senior in-house attorneys span the globe. We have led senior attorney and related professions searches from China to Chicago, London to Washington, D.C., and Houston to Honolulu.
We have led General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, senior subject matter expert, and individual contributor searches for multinational corporations, Fortune 500 companies, venture-backed startups, major public university systems, social justice nonprofits, and large private foundations. Our partners have distinguished themselves in each of these spaces as deeply expert consultants who leverages their decades of experience in search to drive success, however their clients define it. We are honored that the clients and candidates we work with are happy to champion our practice and have volunteered to serve as references over the years.
What is your research strategy for candidates?
Every new client brings a specific need for industry knowledge or experience. We conduct original research at the outset of every search to map the legal talent market within a client’s industry. That research is critical given the constant professional movement in the market. In addition to searching our carefully curated proprietary database, we leverage our vast network of attorneys to identify the people you most want to see on your candidate slates.
At our clients’ discretion, we may broadcast opportunities through LinkedIn (LinkedIn was an early gathering place for members of the legal and compliance profession, and lawyers/compliance officers are well-represented on the platform). To ensure we reach as broad a talent market as possible, we typically reach out to national, state, and local bar associations and regional chapters of the Association of Corporate Counsel.
For what level of seniority do you usually recruit in your searches?
How well do you stay in touch with the Legal sector? Our industry? This specific Position?
We are a relationship-driven firm. Our consultants are keenly focused on building deep, meaningful professional relationships with the cohort of corporate and nonprofit in-house lawyers. Beyond our vast network of senior legal leaders, we pay close attention to the rising stars in the legal profession, monitoring the development and growth of in-house legal teams throughout the country. We also monitor law firm promotions in the most prominent global law firms. To help us stay abreast of professional developments, we maintain an open dialogue with our target audiences through direct outreach and social media, subscribe to several legal industry newsletters and publications, and participate in legal conferences. We live and breathe legal executive search. It is our singular focus.
We have built strong relationships with lawyers with specific experience serving private foundations and other tax-exempt organizations. Our vast network of tax-exempt organization attorneys includes lawyers in private practice and in-house counsel. Because of our experience recruiting attorneys for foundations, we constantly refresh and add to our database of lawyers doing this work. In addition, we count some of the most client-focused philanthropies and nonprofits as delighted clients, including Waverley Street Foundation, Earthjustice, and Climate Lead.
How would you measure success? What are the firm’s metrics related to typical benchmarks for search projects?
We set benchmarks for success in partnership with our clients, and we agree on the desired timeline for milestone achievements at the outset of every search. Our typical measures of success include:
- The presentation of a highly qualified and diverse slate of candidates who meet or exceed your expectations.
- Establishing a regular cadence for information sharing with clients and candidates that keeps everyone well-informed and up to date on the progress of the search.
- The completion of the search assignment resulting in an excellent hire and onboarding experience.
We work closely with clients throughout the search engagement to create a roadmap that includes John and Snyder meeting with key client stakeholders, setting a timeline for our firm’s candidate development and behavioral interview protocol, coordinating client/candidate interviews and relaying feedback, and a shared approach to communicating with candidates while they remain under consideration.
What is your commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging in your search practice?
We are deeply committed to the principles of fairness and inclusion in every search we undertake. Our commitment is to treat all the people we meet with dignity and respect, regardless of their personal stories and backgrounds. We recognize that the legal profession continues to struggle with equity and fairness and that we play a unique role in helping clients and candidates connect where they might not otherwise.
While we work with our clients to define what diversity means to their organizations, we are steadfast in our efforts to reach out to all qualified prospects, including those who come from underrepresented communities and/or personal identities. We have fostered relationships with the most prominent diversity bar associations in America, including the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), the National Bar Association (serving the African American attorney community), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA), the South Asian Bar Association (SABA), and the LGBTQ+ Bar Association.
Answers to Your Candidate Questions
We provide detailed answers to help you understand how we interact with potential candidates and how we can assist your organization.
What would an unsuccessful candidate say about their experience with your firm?
How will you assess candidates? What is your vetting process?
We start with a short 30-minute screening call to ask qualifying questions to see if the prospect understands the role, has the experience the client is looking for, and would be a good culture fit (interested in the job for the right reasons). From there, we start narrowing the pool and invite those we believe represent the general profile to meet via video for a one-hour behavioral interview. We ask the candidates to give us specific examples of their work that speak to the technical and cultural expectations of the role. We then create a transcript of that interview for our clients.
Finally, we may ask candidates we present to complete a supplemental questionnaire and to detail their experience with the specific technical competencies required in the role. We also ask them to flag any logistics issues that may come into play, including issues around geography, timing, and any competitive opportunities they may be considering.
How are candidates sourced/identified?
We start by contacting carefully selected candidates in our database whose skills meet the qualifications described in the job announcement. We continue researching candidates we do not know using current internet research methodologies. Concurrent with our internal research, we work with clients to identify industry-specific boards or listservs where their search announcement might get attention from prospective candidates or the people who know them. We also engage our professional networks, reaching out to well-connected attorneys who can help us get to the people our clients want to attract.
As noted earlier, we try to broadcast opportunities to a diverse network of professionals with relevant experience. We also reach out to the leadership of those organizations to help evangelize the opportunity to their members.
How do you ensure the candidate is a culture fit for our organization?
We typically interview several people on the client leadership and operational teams to help us get a feel for the work culture. Those interviews enable us to get a sense of people’s personalities, which helps us understand the organization’s culture and values. We then tailor our behavioral interview questions to illuminate the candidates’ approach to relationship building and to get a clearer sense of how they navigate those relationships in the context of their role as internal service providers and thought partners.
Do you have an assessment you use for candidates?
We are a Hogan-certified talent consultancy. Both Partners are certified to administer and interpret the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and the Motives, Values Preferences Inventory (MVPI).
While we are happy to leverage assessment as part of the search process, we do not believe that psychometric assessment alone should determine a client’s hiring decision. We recommend assessments for only a few “semi-finalist” candidates to help shed light on nuanced differences among a client’s top prospects. Assessments also help our clients plan for their new hire’s onboarding experience by highlighting areas where the selected candidate may benefit from early coaching and integration.
Assessment is administered only at our client’s discretion and is not necessarily a routine part of our vetting process.
What are your top 3 challenges in finding candidates for your attorney searches?
Identifying prospects is relatively easy despite the challenges of current labor market shifts. Finding suitable candidates ready to make a professional move is more challenging. Attorneys at all professional levels are in hot demand, and the best attorneys are generally well cared for by their organizations. They will move only for an exceptional opportunity that represents new challenges, greater responsibility, and a strategic seat at the table.
As we settle into a post-COVID market, our biggest challenge is finding people with all the skills and experiences our clients are looking for within the clients’ preferred geography. Many attorneys have moved around the country away from major metropolitan legal markets, and they are unwilling to relocate for a new position.
Aside from the typical experience and skills needed by an in-house counsel candidate, many organizations will require a background in a specific industry. Finding candidates with the requisite skills and years of experience within a particular sector can be challenging where the industry ecosystem is relatively narrow.
Despite these challenges, we are confident that, based on our track record, we can fulfill our promise to guide our clients to a successful hire!
Do you typically offer advice or feedback before and after the interview?
We try to make your candidates as comfortable as possible with the interview process and give them an idea of what types of questions they should expect without sending them the questions. Once our interviews are over, we try to be as transparent with the candidates as possible to prepare them for the next stage of the process.
When a candidate is ready to meet with a client interview panel, we provide them with the information they need to feel comfortable preparing to meet with the organization without overstepping our role. We don’t want the candidate to go into interviews unprepared, but we are careful not to feed them the answers to our clients’ questions.
When we release a candidate from the process, we give them feedback on the things that bolstered their candidacy and where things did not go so well. Hard as that feedback may be at times, most candidates appreciate our candor.
About Our Placements
What is your average placement time?
What do past clients have to say about you?
Can you share any case studies?
You may view select case studies here. The following are just a few of our successful placements and the public declarations of our clients’ satisfaction with our search practice:
Heising-Simons Foundation
We led the inaugural General Counsel search on behalf of the Heising-Simons Foundation. The Foundation is a growing private philanthropy that supports a diverse portfolio of nonprofit organizations and researchers working on issues in education, human rights, climate science, and the environment. The organization’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Malloy, and his then Head of HR, Kim Galvin, relied heavily on our guidance throughout the search process. We were thrilled to attract and hire the very talented Jennifer Shipp to the role. She has been a complete success as the Foundations first General Counsel and has since reached out for help building her team, including recruiting two additional attorneys, Chelsea Ziegler (former MacArthur Foundation) and Vanessa Goodwin (former Arnold Ventures).
“We’ve worked with numerous search firms over the years, and I can honestly say that the search you just completed for us was the best experience I’ve ever had on a search. So, thanks for the thanks, but it is us who should be thanking you!!” – Jeff Malloy | COO
Bainum Family Foundation
The Bainum Family Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based private foundation focused on the well-being of children and families. The foundation’s Chief Financial Officer, Mike Brannan, retained John and Snyder to lead the search for the organization’s next General Counsel. The challenge in the search was to find an experienced attorney with specific 501c(4) experience to help the board and leadership team navigate the legal complexities of running both the Bainum Family Foundation and its affiliated c(4) Children’s Equity Fund. We came to an excellent conclusion with the selection of Aimee Krause Stewart to be the foundation’s next General Counsel.
“We just wrapped up our GC search working with J&S. We received a level of attentiveness that elevates their services above the norm of executive search. First, they sought to understand us, our company, and the position to create a more focused search. They provided full transparency by giving us online access to candidate materials as the search progressed. We appreciated how they kept the conversations real about the candidates we considered, were receptive to feedback, and made adjustments as needed. Their deep understanding of the philanthropic sector, the legal field, and the available legal talent gave us confidence that no stone was left unturned in the candidates presented. We made a great hire. Beyond their professionalism and expertise, Steve and Jason are especially relatable, and it was great getting to know them. We’re excited to continue the relationship through the coaching services they offer our new hire and supervisor.” – Mike Brannan | CFO
ACLU of Northern California
The ACLU of Northern California is one of the oldest and largest affiliates of the ACLU. John and Snyder was retained by the organization’s Executive Director, Abdi Soltani, to lead the search for the organization’s inaugural General Counsel. This was a complex national search with a number of vested stakeholders including two separate Boards of Directors. We partnered with the client to structure the organization’s internal vetting process after developing an extraordinarily talented and diverse slate of candidates. It was another successful partnership that resulted in the hire of Elise Traynum, the former General Counsel of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (Steve’s alma mater). Elise has been a star in the role.
“Our new General Counsel has been doing a wonderful job. From day one, she has brought so much to the ACLU. I am really grateful to you for that masterful search process. Really. You’re the best!” – Abdi Soltani | Executive Director
Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies
The Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is a private foundation with a diverse portfolio of grantmaking programs focused on education, the arts, animal welfare, disaster relief, and the environment. The organization retained our firm to help their newly promoted General Counsel, Liz Borer, rebuild a legal team that had gone from a team of four lawyers to one. After recruiting two new attorneys to support the institution, we were then engaged to facilitate a series of teambuilding meetings to build a supportive and responsive team culture.
It has been an absolute delight to work with you this year. Thanks for all that you’ve done to help us build our team. You’ve been incredible partners on every step of this journey. Thanks so much for being an unofficial extension of our MACP legal team! – Elizabeth “Liz” Borer | General Counsel
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Hewlett Foundation first retained our firm to replace Jennifer Shipp, who left to become the inaugural General Counsel of the Heising-Simons Foundation. We worked closely with Elizabeth Peters, then General Counsel, to recruit an experienced exempt-organizations attorney. That search resulted in the successful hire of Jennifer Kwong, who joined from Open Society Foundations. The foundation returned to us a year later to lead their search for a new attorney as the team expanded. That search ended in success. When Liz was promoted to COO, her Deputy General Counsel, Kristy Tsadik, was promoted to General Counsel, leaving another gap on the team. Kristy retained our firm to lead the search to fill that gap, resulting in the successful hire of Irene Hong.
Thank you, Steve and Jason. It is always a pleasure working with you, and we are so grateful that you continue to bring us top-quality candidates and make the process feel seamless. While I hope we don’t need your services again anytime soon (LOL!), I’m always happy to serve as a reference if you need one to share our tale of being satisfied customers. – Kristy Tsadik | General Counsel
What does your pricing structure look like? Is it Flexible? Negotiable?
We are a retained search consultancy, but with a twist. Typically, we price our fees at a third of a placed In-House Counsel’s first year base compensation only. With our nonprofit and philanthropic clients, we lower the fee to twenty-five percent of first-year base compensation. We do not include annual bonuses or signing incentives in our fee calculations.
While we divide our fee into three parts, the first fee installment is the only true retainer. The second and third fee installments are dependent on our meeting critical deliverables. We bill the second fee installment once we have delivered a viable slate of candidates. The final fee installment is billed only after you have a signed offer letter from your finalist.
Unlike most large executive search firms, we do not charge an additional administrative fee on top of our search fee. We bear the administrative costs of managing your search process.
It is our conviction that a successful search requires a true partnership between consultant and client. That is why we ask our clients to pay a retainer to launch their search (we always start executing searches before receiving the first payment). The rest of our fee is dependent on our performance. We feel this structure treats both parties fairly and provides enough flexibility in the event of a significant change in circumstance.
We work with our clients on an exclusive basis.
Exclusivity means that our clients do not engage other search firms to compete for the placement, and our fees are paid regardless of the source of the candidate who is ultimately hired, even when that candidate is referred directly to the client through an employee or other third party. To keep the search process fair and equitable, we strongly suggest all candidates go through our vetting process.
