Lateral Link Announces Principal And Director Level Promotions
Lateral Link is pleased to announce our company promotions for 2021!
We are pleased to announce the following Principal level promotions: Gloria Sandrino to Managing Principal; Jon Kahn to Senior Principal; and Susan Agopian to Principal as well as the following Director level promotions: Andrew Clyne, Ata Farhadi, Allie Fennell, Zach Sandberg, and Abby Gordon to Managing Director; Steven Damato, Sean Hamrin, Jesse Hyde, Kelly Rizzo, Stephanie Ruiter, and Marion Wilson to Senior Director; and Melissa Martson to Associate Director.
Gloria Sandrino, Managing Principal
Gloria is a Managing Principal and Leader of the Partner Practice based in the Los Angeles office. She focuses exclusively on partner and group placements nationwide. Gloria leverages her vast network of partner and executive contacts to help partner and group candidates make lateral moves. Gloria practiced Corporate M&A for over a decade in Manhattan and Miami before transitioning into legal recruiting. Gloria is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Jon is a Senior Principal and a Leader of the Partner Practice based in the New York office. He focuses exclusively on partner and group placements nationwide. He practiced law for over twenty-five years in capital markets as a former partner at several major Am Law 100 law firms before transitioning into legal recruiting. Jon is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.
Susan is a Principal based in the Los Angeles office. With over fifteen years of recruiting experience, she specializes in lateral partner placements nationwide. Susan received her Masters in Philosophy from California State University, Los Angeles.
Andrew Clyne, Managing Director
Andrew is a Managing Director based in the New York office. He focuses on recruiting attorneys at all levels, and across all practice areas, for positions in prominent law firms in NYC and Boston. Additionally, he has placed attorneys into law firms in London, and has assisted associates who are practicing abroad (including in London, Tokyo, Singapore, and Bangkok) in relocating back stateside. Andrew is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law.
Ata Farhadi, Managing Director
Ata is a Managing Director based in the Los Angeles office. He focuses on partner and associate placements nationally. Ata received his LLM from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law after attending Oxford University.
Allie Fennell, Managing Director
Allie is a Managing Director based in the Atlanta office. With over a decade of recruiting experience, she focuses on associate and partner placements in law firms throughout the Southeast. Allie received her J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law.
Zach Sandberg, Managing Director
Zach is a Managing Director based in the Los Angeles office. He focuses on working with attorneys to find them positions at premier firms and corporations throughout California and the West Coast. Zach holds an undergraduate degree from Pepperdine University where he graduated summa cum laude.
Abby Gordon, Managing Director
Abby is a Managing Director in the New York office. She focuses on placements of partners, counsel, and associate candidates in all fields of law for law firms and in-house in New York, Boston, and European markets. Prior to recruiting, Abby spent seven years as a corporate associate with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, focusing on capital markets transactions for Latin American clients in New York, and for the last five years for European clients in Paris, France. Abby graduated from Georgetown University Law Center.
Sean is a Senior Director based in the Los Angeles office. He focuses on attorney placements throughout the West Coast, including Northern and Southern California and much of the Pacific Northwest. He holds an undergraduate degree in the arts from Carnegie Mellon University where he graduated with honors.
Jesse is a Senior Director based in the Chicago office. He specializes in placing associates, partners, and in-house counsel with leading Am Law 100 and 200 law firms and premier corporations. Jesse received his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law where he was on the Dean’s List and a Member of the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal.
Kelly is a Senior Director based in the Houston office. She focuses on associate placements with premier law firms in the Texas market. Prior to joining Lateral Link, she was a family law litigator for over five years. Kelly received her J.D. from the University of Houston.
Stephanie Ruiter, Senior Director
Stephanie is a Senior Director based in the New York office. After practicing as a litigator at two small Washington, D.C. area firms, Stephanie moved to New York and began her recruiting career, where she focuses on attorney placements for prominent New York law firms. Stephanie received her law degree from the University of Georgia.
Marion Wilson, Senior Director
Marion is a Senior Director based in the Atlanta office. He focuses on placing associates and partners at Am Law 200 law firms, prominent regional firms, and elite boutiques throughout the Southeast, and in-house positions with companies nationwide. Before becoming a recruiter, he spent eleven years as a litigator with an Atlanta based, Am Law 200 firm. Marion received his law degree from Emory University School of Law with honors.
Melissa Martson, Associate Director
Melissa is an Associate Director based in the Los Angeles office. She has over twelve years of recruiting experience and works closely with the entire team at Lateral Link to support our associate and partner searches.
“Our overall success is due in part to all of our colleagues at Lateral Link making up a very deep and talented bench of legal recruiters as well as support staff, and for this year, we are recognizing a few of them given their noteworthy contribution not only to our legal recruiting firm but also the industry overall,” said CEO Michael Allen. “We are extremely fortunate to have this talented group of individuals promoted to Principal and Director level positions.”
Along with our entire team at Lateral Link, each of these recruiters played a key role in driving nearly 500 successful placements this year after coming out of an unprecedentedly challenging time for legal recruiting during the pandemic. To sum it up, our team and staff dug in and executed our business with a drive to succeed and diligently serve our clients and candidates. We look forward to the continued contributions of our next generation of leaders and seasoned professionals.
Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices worldwide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click here to find out more about us.
