Recruitment Manager - EMEA

Practice Group / Department:

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm with more than 3,000 lawyers advising clients across locations in the United States, Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. We provide the world's preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service.

With over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide, our culture is the thread that connects us, as well as our values of unity, quality and integrity. Our strategy and culture are connected – defined by shared ambition, global collaboration and a one-team mindset. We believe pioneering work happens when people are empowered to think beyond boundaries, explore new opportunities and grow through diverse experiences. Alongside the right skills and experience, we look for people who are innovative, commercially minded, and motivated by the impact of the work they do – ready to share in our ambition and help shape what comes next.

Because while individuals can do well, together we achieve something extraordinary.

The Team

The recruitment team forms part of our wider People & Culture function, and our newly launched Recruitment Centre of Excellence is responsible for all experienced-hire recruitment across the EMEA region, including fee-earning and business services hiring.

The Role

The Recruitment Manager – EMEA (UK & Middle East – Fee Earning) is responsible for the operational delivery of Fee Earning recruitment across the UK and Middle East offices.  The role focuses on regional ownership, proactive talent pipelining, direct sourcing excellence, stakeholder management, and capability development across the recruitment team, ensuring recruitment activity is delivered consistently, efficiently, and in alignment with the firm’s EMEA Recruitment Centre of Excellence (COE) model.

The postholder will operate within an established recruitment strategy and governance framework whilst taking ownership for building long-term talent pipelines, developing recruitment capability within the team, and strengthening relationships with senior business stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver Fee Earning recruitment activity across the UK and Middle East.
• Drive recruitment outcomes through effective planning, market engagement, and disciplined execution.
• Build and maintain robust external talent pipelines aligned to current and future hiring requirements.
• Develop market maps and targeted talent pools across key practice areas and strategic growth markets.
• Take a proactive, hands-on approach to direct sourcing using recruitment technology, LinkedIn Recruiter, CRM capability, internal talent pools, referral channels, and market intelligence.
• Champion direct hiring as the default recruitment approach.
• Drive effective use of recruitment systems, sourcing platforms, analytics, and recruitment technologies.
• Coach and develop Talent Sourcing Advisors through regular training, mentoring, feedback, and practical support.
• Build trusted relationships with Partners, business leadership, People & Culture BPs, and key stakeholders.
• Act as the primary recruitment contact for senior Fee Earning stakeholders.
• Influence stakeholders through data, market insight, and recruitment expertise.
• Authorise agency engagement in line with agreed recruitment strategy and governance and challenge unnecessary agency usage.
• Ensure recruitment activity aligns with the EMEA COE model and identify opportunities for process improvement.
• Use of data to report on recruitment activity, sourcing performance, pipeline health, agency usage, and hiring outcomes.

Key Skills and Experience

Essential

• Significant legal recruitment experience, ideally from Associate to Counsel level
• Experience of using an ATS (such as Workday)
• Proven success in sourcing candidates using channels such as LinkedIn, other CV databases, and a range of recruiting strategies, including referrals.
• Experience managing senior stakeholders at Partner level

Desirable

• Experience recruiting outside of the UK, ideally in the Middle East
• Track record of coaching and developing junior colleagues
• Experience of using sourcing platforms to identify legal talent (such as Pirical)

To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential. 
Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing. Find more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know here.