Sharon Mahn understands the ecosystem of a deal: the rainmaker, the firm, the spouse, the whispered possibility of a move and the enormous business that may follow.
For more than two decades, Mahn has lived inside that world. A former trial lawyer turned founder and CEO of Mahn Consulting, she has moved major partners, helped build teams and brokered deals that shift millions in revenue and alter the future of a practice. She has done it through instinct, nerve and a relationship network built the old-fashioned way – one cold call, one lunch, one leap of trust at a time.
“It was about building a career and a life that felt more aligned with who I am,” says Mahn. “The best placements are not just transactions. They are relationships that continue to build over time.”
Mahn is clear-eyed about how much the business around those relationships has changed. As Big Law has grown larger, richer and more mobile, legal recruiting has grown with it – into a high-stakes market where information can be as valuable as the move itself. Mahn has seen that evolution from every angle: as a lawyer, as a recruiter, as an entrepreneur and now as a commentator co-anchoring The Exchange Briefing from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with veteran journalist Jane King.
Mahn has built an exceptional career by understanding power in all its forms: who has it, who is trying to move it and what is at stake when it changes hands. Her own story is proof of what can happen when women insist on keeping theirs.
“Nobody is coming to save you,” Mahn says. “You have to stand up and fight for the life you want.”
Mahn, an industry leader for 25 years, is named to the 2026 Lawdragon 100 Global Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting.
Lawdragon: Where did you grow up?
Sharon Mahn: I was born in Manhattan and raised in New Jersey. People keep leaving for Florida, but New York has always had my heart. I love the energy, the neighborhoods, the water, the fact that it keeps changing. Once you spend any real time here, you’re a New Yorker.
LD: What drew you to recruiting?
SM: I came to recruiting as a lawyer, and that has always shaped the way I look at the work. I understood what lawyers were weighing when they considered a move – their clients, their firms, their compensation, their families, their fears and their ambitions.
Recruiting is about judgment, timing and trust. You are helping someone make a decision that can change the direction of their career and their life.
I have worked on major placements and combinations, watched lawyers grow into positions of real power and helped people make moves that changed their lives. I love that part of the work. The best recruiters do more than make introductions. They help people see what is possible.
LD: How did you get comfortable building a career around cold calls?
SM: I am extremely social, and I always wanted to meet everyone. I loved being in New York. I loved coming to work every day. I loved going out, meeting people, going to games, concerts, dinners – all of it.
So it never really felt like cold calling to me. It felt like building relationships. I became good friends with my clients and candidates, and over time those relationships became real friendships. People I met 25 years ago are still in my life now.
At the time, legal recruiting was much more secretive than it is now. People were afraid to be seen with a recruiter. They would say, “Do not tell anyone I am talking to you.” Some people used fake names. It felt very old-school and private.
Now managing partners call because they want to know what is happening in the market, what is happening at their own firms and how to think about talent. I have watched lawyers go from young partners to chairs, managing partners and leaders of major firms. Now I get to share what I have learned over 25 years – how to build business, how to position yourself, how to make good career decisions and how to think long-term. That is really exciting to me.
I get to share what I have learned over 25 years – how to build business, how to position yourself, how to make good career decisions and how to think long-term. That is really exciting to me.
LD: What have been some of the most significant placements of your career?
SM: I have worked on very large deals, including the merger of a major firm where I moved about 150 lawyers. Those matters are interesting because of their scale, complexity and impact on the market.
But I really do think every deal is interesting in its own way, because you are helping someone make a life-changing decision. Of course, the big lucrative deals are wonderful for your bottom line. But even a smaller placement can have tremendous impact. You may be helping someone get a better opportunity, more money, less stress or a clearer path to build a book of business.
I see my role as going beyond simply placing someone in a job. I help candidates market themselves and think about their careers long-term. Sometimes that means making personal introductions. Sometimes it means putting them on my show at the Stock Exchange. Sometimes it means connecting them with business contacts or helping them understand how to position themselves in the market. When my candidates grow, I grow with them. If they build business, become more successful and develop stronger practices, that is good for everyone. The best placements are not just transactions. They are relationships that continue to build over time.
LD: Tell us more about your show. You’re co-hosting The Exchange Briefing from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. How did that come about?
SM: I teamed up with my friend Jane King, who I’ve known for 20 years. Jane is a powerhouse – she’s a national financial reporter, a former anchor on CNN and Bloomberg, and she is at the New York Stock Exchange early in the morning doing financial reporting. In between all of that, we fit in our show.
It’s called The Exchange Briefing, and we bring guests to the Stock Exchange to talk about the legal market, what their clients are doing and the broader trends they’re seeing. We’re targeting managing partners, practice leaders and people who are very high up in the industry. The show gives us a way to bring in lawyers and business leaders who can speak to what’s happening in real time.
Most of what you see from the Stock Exchange is finance or tech. We’re saying, “Let’s also talk about the legal implications.” There are all these emerging growth companies, especially in AI and digital assets, and the market is moving so quickly. Companies that were started three years ago are being sold for billions of dollars. It’s hard to keep up, even when you’re trying to keep up.
LD: As Big Law has grown, how has that changed the stakes in legal recruiting?
SM: The stakes are enormous now. Legal recruiting is not what people may imagine it to be. This is not just someone sending a résumé and making an introduction. In the partner market, you may be talking about lawyers with $50M books of business. If a major partner or team moves, that can change the financial picture of an entire firm.
Law firms are not like public companies. Their value is tied very directly to their lawyers, their client relationships and their revenue. If you take out a major team, you are not just moving people. You are moving business. You are moving institutional knowledge. You may be shifting a meaningful percentage of a firm’s bottom line.
That is why law firms need to be much more sophisticated about how they work with recruiters and what they share. If a recruiter knows that one office has a need, or that one partner may be vulnerable, or that a practice group is under pressure, that information can be used in ways the firm may not expect. And because the industry is not meaningfully regulated, there is very little in place to prevent that.
LD: What should lawyers understand before they speak candidly with a recruiter?
SM: Speaking with a recruiter is not the same as speaking with a lawyer. There is no attorney-client privilege. There may be a relationship of trust, and there are many recruiters who take that very seriously, but as an industry matter, candidates should not assume that everything they say is protected.
That matters because candidates often tell recruiters deeply personal information – compensation, conflicts, health issues, family pressures, internal firm problems and why they are afraid to leave. A good recruiter needs context to help someone position a move properly. But where does that information go? Who sees it? Is it accurate? Can it be shared, sold, hacked or used later in a way the candidate never intended?
Law firms are not like public companies. Their value is tied very directly to their lawyers, their client relationships and their revenue. If you take out a major team, you are not just moving people. You are moving business.
Those questions are even more serious now because of AI. Information that used to sit in one database may not stay there forever. Once data is aggregated, searched or processed by new tools, the candidate may have no control over it and no ability to correct it.
People think legal recruiting is simple. It is not. There is an entire world behind it, and lawyers need to understand that before they share information that could affect their careers, their reputations and their firms.
LD: How does AI affect the way sensitive recruiting information can be collected, stored and used?
SM: AI raises the stakes because it can process and amplify information without necessarily understanding whether that information is true, complete or fair. It does not have judgment. It can read what is public, what is repeated, what is best marketed or most visible – but that does not always mean it is the most accurate information.
That is why I keep coming back to oversight. Recruiting has always involved sensitive information, but the technology has changed the scale. Information can move faster, travel farther and be interpreted by systems that do not know the people involved. A human recruiter may understand nuance. AI does not necessarily understand context.
The question is not just whether AI will help or hurt the recruiting industry. The question is: What duties do we have when we collect, store and use information about people’s careers? Because if the information is wrong, and it gets amplified, the harm can be very real.
LD: How should we be thinking about regulation in legal recruiting?
SM: I think there should be a licensing component, an ethics board and some form of enforcement authority. I say that as someone who is a lawyer by background. Lawyers answer to the bar. Doctors, financial professionals – there are systems in place. If you mishandle money, client information or professional obligations, there are consequences.
In recruiting, we are handling incredibly sensitive information, but there is no comparable oversight. There are industry organizations with ethics rules, but they do not have real enforcement power, and not every recruiter or recruiting company is even subject to them. So the question becomes: Who is actually regulating the industry?
I have lived through this myself, and it has made me think seriously about what happens when there is no meaningful check on the industry.
To me, regulation is about protecting everyone – candidates, law firms, clients and recruiters – who are trying to do the work the right way. The legal market has changed. The money has changed. The technology has changed. The oversight needs to change too.
LD: Tell us about rebuilding your career after leaving Major, Lindsey.
SM: When I left, I had already learned the business and had been very successful. I was one of the top producers. But the environment had become too big, too competitive and too cutthroat for the kind of life and business I wanted to build.
At the same time, my mother was very sick. She had leukemia and died when she was only 62. I was going to Sloan Kettering every week while I was working, and watching someone you love go through that changes your perspective very quickly. It makes you realize that time is not guaranteed.
So when I left, it was not just about starting another recruiting business. It was about building a career and a life that felt more aligned with who I am. I wanted to do excellent work, but I also wanted to enjoy my life, protect my relationships and work with people in a way that felt personal and human.
The legal market has changed. The money has changed. The technology has changed. The oversight needs to change too.
What I learned is that you have to love your life while you are living it. I came to New York in my 30s, and now I am pushing 60. It goes by fast. Every day counts. Every day is an opportunity to meet someone new, help someone, make a connection, see something, do something different.
That is how I rebuilt. I kept working. I kept making placements, kept helping people and stayed close to my candidates, my clients, my lawyers, my friends. I served on boards. I run marathons. I try to connect as much as I can back to charity, service or helping other people.
Every day you spend feeling sorry for yourself is a day you are not out there connecting with people or doing something good. Nobody is coming to save you. Whatever your circumstances are – illness, litigation, divorce, heartbreak, professional setbacks – you have to stand up and fight for the life you want, and surround yourself with the top, most ethical people in your industry. You have to stay hopeful, stay positive and keep going.
LD: Looking back on your career, is there anything you would change about your journey?
SM: I wouldn’t change a thing, because I think you have to go through everything you have gone through in order to be where you are now. You make the best decisions you can with the information you have at the time, and then you keep moving forward.
Of course, there are hard moments. I do not know anyone who has reached a high level and has not failed or been knocked down in some way. If that has never happened to you, maybe you have not pushed hard enough. The key is not to stay down.
I am inspired by women who keep going. When you are younger, you want to believe everything is fair and just. But as you get older, and as you become more successful, you see how hard it still is for women to get to the top. So I do think there is value in refusing to disappear.
One of the best pieces of advice I received was, “Do not hide. This does not define you. It is a moment in time.” At first, that sounds easy. But sometimes you have to fake it until you make it. You get up, you go back out into the world, and every day you keep pushing forward until you get where you need to be.
Failure is an opportunity to learn. You get back up. You keep going. That is resilience.
