MLA Names Carlos Pauling as the Newest Executive Director within Its Partner Practice Group

Hanover, MD (Sept. 22, 2020) — Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), the world’s leading legal search firm, today announced that Carlos Pauling has been named Executive Director within the Partner Practice Group. Carlos will oversee the performance of partner recruiters in the firm’s East Coast offices, including New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. In addition, he will be responsible for developing a strategy to grow lateral recruiting at a time when law firms are looking to their strategic partners to recruit the best legal talent.

Carlos joined MLA’s Law Firm Management group in 2017 and was promoted to managing director in 2019. In that role, he led executive-level searches in marketing, business development, finance, human resources, and diversity and inclusion for AmLaw 200 firms across the country.  Because of his robust and unique experience throughout the legal profession, Carlos understands the particular challenges law firms face in today’s lateral marketplace.   

“Carlos is a proven relationship-builder and deal-closer with our law firm clients, over a few short years he has cultivated the majority of his relationships with top-level firm management,” said Kirsten Vasquez, Partner and Vice President, Law Firm Recruiting & Interim Legal Solutions. “He has the ability to meet people and organizations where they are in order to move them forward, and his personalized and situational approach to leadership will serve MLA and our industry-leading Partner recruiting experts well.”

“I am extremely excited and profoundly humbled to be assuming this important leadership role at a time when the legal community, like other industries, is at a unique inflection point coming out of this global pandemic,” said Carlos. “I look forward to working with our amazing team of partner recruiters to continue to deliver our law firm clients the very best advice and service in the industry.”

Prior to joining Major, Lindsey & Africa, Carlos had two decades of legal, banking, business and financial services experience representing some of the largest corporations and financial institutions in the world both as associate general counsel for Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo) and as an associate attorney at Moore & Van Allen, PLLC. Carlos also served in numerous executive roles for private equity firms and their portfolio companies.