Definitive Consulting

Definitive Consulting specializes in client-led lateral partner searches, team hires, office launches, and M&A in the global professional services and consulting markets, with over 90% of assignments being retained or exclusive searches.

Operating from offices in London, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, and New York, we support Accountancy, Consulting, and Law firms on their senior strategic hires across Advisory, Assurance, Consulting, Legal, and Tax disciplines.

We build long-term relationships, acting as strategic advisors to a select group of clients and candidates.

Partner, APAC

Just Legal K.K.

Tokyo-based legal & compliance recruiter focused on the Japan market. Admitted as a lawyer in New Zealand and previously practiced at a law firm specialising in commercial and public law.

Just Legal is a specialized search firm headquartered in Tokyo that connects top legal and compliance talent with law firms and international and Japanese companies. With deep knowledge of Japan's legal and compliance market, founded on decades of collective experience, Just Legal delivers for clients on their most crucial legal and compliance hiring challenges.
 
This means a tailored, customer-focused approach to recruitment; not based on the numbers of CVs sent out to hiring managers but rather founded on market knowledge, professional integrity, a solid methodology and hard work – all with the goal of trying to make customers happy and more successful.
 
www.justlegal.co.jp

Founding Partner

Talent2

Member of the most dominant legal recruitment team in Tokyo. Assisted clients - law firms and companies - in hiring legal counsel and compliance professionals. Most of our team left and established Just Legal KK after Talent2 was acquired, and they moved away from legal recruiting.

Senior Consultant, Legal

Wall Street Associates

Returned to Wall Street Associates (since renamed en world Japan) to start a legal recruitment division. Did so successfully, beating billing targets in the first full quarter, while developing new clients and candidates, and hiring and training staff.

Business Manager

Te Nahu Lovell & Co Ltd

Public litigation (focused on Treaty of Waitangi), commercial and civil matters, including representation of clients at tribunals, court, and other forums.

Solicitor

As a Partner in the APAC Legal practice at Definitive Consulting, I specialize in partner search mandates and team moves for law firms in Japan.

With over 16 years of senior search experience and a background in law, I support international and Japanese firms in securing key strategic hires within the Tokyo market.

I take a tailored, client-focused approach, emphasizing integrity and quality in every search, and I am able to leverage our global network to connect clients with a diverse range of top legal talent.

Contact me at: paul.cochrane@definitive-consulting.com

Speed matters in hiring. Especially in Tokyo.

I recently helped a firm secure one of those unicorn partners – the type who might move once in their career. Maybe.

When I approached a selection of firms about this candidate (without revealing the partner's identity), the responses were telling:

"Send me a CV first."
"Let me think about it."
"I need more information."

But one firm? Different story.

"Would you like to meet this person?"
"Yes. Set it up." 🎯

No CV. No identifying details. Just trust and action.

While other firms were still "evaluating", this firm was already meeting the candidate. Selling the candidate on their platform.

They demonstrated what every unicorn candidate wants to feel: to be wanted.

And guess what? They secured the hire.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that this firm is massively profitable and runs an extremely tight ship. They go from strength to strength, year after year.

Their hiring process reflects their business approach – fast, decisive, confident.

Many firms want to evaluate candidates before even committing to a conversation. That's just not tenable in Tokyo, especially for unicorn-level talent.

The best candidates have options. They talk to firms that move quickly and want them, not those stuck in analysis paralysis.

Speed doesn't need to mean recklessness. It's also recognising opportunity and moving on it.

Impressive to watch. Even more impressive when it works. 😉

Paul Cochrane

Partner Recruitment for Law Firms in Tokyo | Just Search Group

Some of the largest recruitment companies recently posted their H1 2025 results. It's brutal stuff. 📉

- PageGroup: Operating profit down 93%
- Robert Walters: Swung to a £10.2m loss
- Hays: Profits halving

Robert Walters even suspended dividends. Ouch.

Here's what fascinates me:

While these giants bleed, specialist firms are thriving.
We're having our best year at Just Search Group. 📈

I could surmise as to why, but that's for another post. However, I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with conversations vs messages.

(Hint: we like speaking with people. 😉)

The recruitment industry isn't dying. It's just continuing to change, like it always has.

If we don't keep up, we get left behind. 🚀

Tokyo isn’t “just another global office.” 

Fail to see that, and you’re done. ❌

Success = Clients, Culture, Counsel.

A Managing Partner's Survival Guide

Many international law firms in Tokyo still don't have a Japanese Bengoshi partner.

And they're leaving serious money on the table. 💰

I get the hesitation. You're worried about losing those comfortable referral relationships with the Big 4 domestic firms. For some firms, that's a valid concern. But for most? You're choosing passive hope over active growth.

What referral relationships provide:

- Occasional work when they're conflicted out
- Zero control over client relationships
- No visibility into what's actually happening in the market
- Dependency on another firm's goodwill

Now imagine having even one Japanese partner on the ground:

- Direct client relationships you control
- Someone actively promoting your firm at industry events
- Real-time market intelligence
- Internal communication that actually works
- Clients who get a better experience

Yes, you might lose some referral work initially. But what I've seen happen repeatedly: firms with Japanese partners generate 3-5x more revenue within two years than they ever received through referrals.

The maths is simple. Referral work is unpredictable and passive. Having your own team is strategic and scalable.

Hope isn't a business strategy. Having the right people on the ground is. 🎯

The firms still clinging to referral-only models in 2025? They're being left behind.

Law firm partners face so much pressure, most of it self-imposed.

Associates work so hard to have a shot at partnership. Only to make it and find out that the hard work doesn't stop there. In fact, the pressure is greater as a partner because you have to generate your own work, not simply put in long hours on someone else's matters.

I see this with Tokyo partners all the time. One partner I know regularly billed 2,500 hours as a senior associate. Now, as a partner, he's working even longer hours - doing work that his senior partners are giving him - but struggling to originate work himself.

He's worried (rightfully) that when his senior partners turn off the work tap and give it to even younger, hungrier partners in the next few years, he will be left out in the cold, without the ability to generate work. 🥶

I can relate. When I was a junior lawyer, the partners I worked for had high expectations regarding billing. So I put in the desk time and did client meetings on weekends. Hit my billable targets, no problem.

Now, as a recruiter, I can do all the right activities and still not hit my financial targets. What do I do? Work more hours? Do more activity? Maybe…although it's typically about the quality of the searches I'm selecting and the customers I work with.

Likewise, for law firm partners, even under a billable hour model, more hours may check the boxes as an associate, but once you're a partner, you need to think about where you're spending your marketing energy, you need to sharpen your advisory and business development skills.

Getting better at selling and listening starts with simple changes:

- Schedule coffee meetings instead of desk lunches.
- Ask clients about their business challenges, not just their legal needs.
- Join industry events, not just legal conferences.

Because when you're in your 40s and beyond, more hours is not the answer…burnout is real. 💡

Once bitten, twice shy. 🐍

Or in Tokyo legal recruitment parlance: "We hired a partner who turned out to be a jerk, and now we're absolutely terrified of repeating that mistake."

I get it. I've been there. One bad hire can have a massive effect, especially on a small organisation.

But the solution is not to bury your head in the sand and not hire again. 🙈

I've seen this situation play out time and again in Tokyo. A law firm brings in a partner - often a big name and an even bigger ego - and he proceeds to upend the atmosphere in the Tokyo office.

This guy will often be successful in generating business because he can charm certain clients, so the Tokyo office will put up with his behaviour for a time, putting it down to him being 'unique' and suggesting he just needs more time to settle in.

While NY or London give an even longer runway because they're looking at the revenue numbers. 💰

Meanwhile, support staff and associates are unhappy - some even quit - and even partners start avoiding him.

Not the recipe for a collegial team.

And, while his behaviour is not conducive to a happy office, it's the firm's inaction that speaks louder. Sending a message that revenue generation is valued above all else.

And those firms exist. That's their culture, and that's fine for them. But, most firms are not like that - or at least say they're not - but their (in)action tells another story.

If you don't want to find yourself in this quandary, do your DD. The answer is not to never hire, it's to focus on things other than the business case when looking at lateral partners. 👇

- Tell them you want to speak with former associates.
- Tap your network - including recruiters - to ask about market rep.
- Be clear about firm priorities; i.e. culture is just as important as revenue (assuming that is true)
- Ensure non-partners - like HR professionals - are involved in the hiring process
- Implement personality or psychometric testing into the process

But don't do nothing.

I've watched firms spend 3+ years in hiring paralysis, interviewing dozens of partners and rejecting them all in a quest for a Goldilocks replacement. This sends another message to the market: that you're afraid and possibly controlling. 🚩

Another jerk may sneak through your interview process again. But if you're following a structured, thorough plan, you'll reduce the chances of that happening again.

The biggest risk isn't hiring another bad fit. It's letting a fear of jerks stop you from hiring the stars who could massively help your firm. ⭐

Many law firms talk a lot. About their platform, their global presence, and their PEP.

But very few back it up when it comes to partner hiring.

Previously, we spoke with two firms about similar partner needs. One wouldn't even consider a committed search; they wanted to 'keep their options open'. The other retained us.

One firm got its partner signed up within 7 months. The other one is still looking, and it's been nearly 2 years.

Let's do the maths on where they are now:

- Lost revenue: ¥300-500M
- Opportunity cost: Countless missed mandates, delayed expansion
- Team morale: Declining further
- Market reputation: "What's their game plan in Tokyo?"

The retained search fee? A rounding error compared to all of this.

- Firm A (no retainer): Still looking (nearly 2 years now)
- Firm B (retained us): Partner is already winning work (new mandates in just their first 6 months), growing the team, helping overseas colleagues win over Japanese clients with global mandates

The difference was commitment. To us, but more importantly, to their decision to make a hire.

Sometimes, keeping your options open in the short term can hurt you in the long term. 💸

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