It started when a client of Sarah Herrmann, President of BCS Marketing and Sales Division, referred a friend who was looking to hire an Intellectual Property attorney, but wanted to work with a boutique full-service firm. That friend turned out to be Jaymie DuBois, Head of People for Ascendis Pharma, a global biopharmaceutical company with headquarters in Denmark and Princeton, New Jersey. Because BCS has expert recruiters in many different areas, Sarah introduced Jaymie to Chris Corsi, co-founder of BCS Search and a legal recruiter. After a great initial conversation where Chris took the time to understand what Ascendis and Jaymie were truly looking for, the search was on!
The term unicorn or purple squirrel is thrown around a lot in recruiting circles for the hard-to-find perfect candidate for a role. In this case though, the description was pretty apt. Ascendis was looking for an IP attorney with a life science educational background (preferably a PhD), had experience as an IP litigator at a top Vault firm, and had experience working as in-house attorney. Throw into that mix of requirements a candidate who could commute to Ascendis’s offices in Princeton a few times a week and would be able to work with colleagues in Europe on a day-to-day basis. As you could imagine, the candidate pool was not deep.
After meeting with the Ascendis team, to include Michael Wolff Jensen, the global EVP and Chief Legal Counsel, Richard Pitman, the VP of IP Strategy and Litigation, and Jaymie, Chris began the search knowing that the likely candidate to fill this role would be very passive and they weren’t going to find him - he was going to have to find them. Using various tools of the trade (none of which were AI), he began with a list of around 150 potential candidates that eventually he whittled down to around 50 viable candidates. Then the phone calls began.
After talking to many viable candidates, the initial slate of presentable candidates landed at 10 attorneys, which took about 2 weeks to finalize. Of those 10 attorneys though, 3 clearly rose to the top of the list after initial conversations, and all 3 met virtually with Jaymie, Michael, and Richard. After that process concluded, which took about a month because of various schedules and time zone differences between the U.S. and Europe, 2 of the candidates progressed to final meetings with additional attorneys in Princeton. While both were excellent candidates, one shone a bit brighter and an offer was made. Negotiations ensued and Chris helped both sides reach a place where everyone was excited and happy with where things ended. The entire search life cycle from initial conversation to offer acceptance was 75 days.
