Fourteen years ago, amidst the uncertainty of the 2008 the Global Financial Crisis, Alex Correa Executive (ACE) was born. The economic downturn had triggered a wave of redundancies, restructures, and a scaling back of legal roles across many law firms in the QLD legal industry.

At the time Alex was employed as a recruitment consultant for a Brisbane CBD consultancy and this period of instability sparked numerous conversations with lawyers about career progression, the need for specialisation, the challenges of coming back to work after maternity leave and the struggle to find good part time roles. Alex was a working parent herself and wanted that same flexibility that her lawyer candidates wanted, and she wondered what the future might look like.

With a background working in law firms and recruitment Alex noticed a gap in the market for a recruitment agency focused solely on talent development and acquisition. This realisation, born out of reflecting on her candidate’s dissatisfied workplace experiences, combined with her desire for flexibility, inspired her to take the plunge and start her own business.

Initially, ACE was a one-woman show designed around flexible working hours to fit around her responsibilities as a parent to two teenagers. Alex operated from a tiny shoebox home office and made use of a serviced office in Brisbane for candidate interviews. Her early days in business involved a lot of travel across the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and the coffee shops of Brisbane suburbs delivering a very personalised recruitment experience to both clients and candidates.

Early Challenges

When Alex left her former employer, she had to launch her business whilst working under a 12-month restraint of trade. She respected this hurdle as a cost of doing business, but strategically named her recruitment consultancy Alex Correa Executive to help future candidates, clients and her well established network easily find her.

From the outset, Alex envisioned a small, boutique firm that would offer highly personalised services including career advice for lawyers and recommendations for organisations to assist them in attracting legal talent. However, within nine months, word of mouth had already spread, and the workload had become overwhelming. Alex’s long wished for flexibility found her working on weekends to manage the volume of roles she was recruiting. This led Alex to add additional resources much earlier than expected to the ACE team. It is this expansion, and her reputation for being honest, authentic and transparent that has meant ACE regularly acts for law firms of all sizes, government and corporates and for lawyers of all levels.

Over the 14 years, Alex and her organisation have become an advocate for working parents, women in leadership, diversity and inclusion and mental health awareness in the legal profession. They proudly partnered with the Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation when it was first established, to help bring awareness about mental health issues among lawyers to Queensland.

The early challenges in founding, launching and running a company were significant. Alex explains that it was difficult at the time to find family-friendly workplaces for her outstanding lawyer candidates. They had to rely on cost effective marketing in those early days and so were early adopters of LinkedIn, leveraging social media to build their brand, network and online community.

Alex found a voice she didn’t realise that she had, taking an advocacy role relating to the lack of women in leadership in law firms, talking to the media about the mid-career drop off and playing a small part in influencing clients to change workplace arrangements to allow flexibility and increase female industry participation. She was interviewed by the BRW and Brisbane Lawyer often in those early days.

What has Changed and What has Stayed the Same?

Alex tells us that there has been one constant over time in the evolving legal industry recruitment landscape. That is the demand for specialised legal talent has remained constant. The importance of building and nurturing relationships and the delivery of personalised service is ACE’s secret to longevity and success.

Alex and her team still take the time to read every single application and CV that is sent to them. They also reply to every single applicant. They understand the importance of responsiveness and feedback in the recruitment process, recognising the time and effort that candidates invest into their applications. This is highly unusual in the market and has helped deliver a network of clients and candidates that trust ACE for career advice, recruitment advice and market insights.

ACE has achieved remarkable milestones over the past 14 years. Alex is still humbled and thrilled to have been entrusted by international and Australian companies and partnered with major organisations like QLD Local and State Government, QLD Treasury, QLD Hydro, to Hitachi Construction Machinery, Transurban and Brisbane Airport.

Advice for Recruiting Firms

Alex advises employers to be responsive to applicants. She notes that there is still a lack of feedback when firms advertise a role themselves. There are some who openly tell applicants that they will only hear from them if they are successful in moving to the next stage. They forget that there is possibly a future client or decision maker at the end of an application.

Taking 2 minutes to provide feedback and acknowledge their efforts in putting themselves forward can go a long way towards building relationships and networks even if the candidate is not suitable for a role. It also helps build a talent pipeline of people that have had a good experience when applying for a role at your company.

She also suggests that hiring managers act quickly and to be responsive to an outstanding candidate. Sometimes if you see someone amazing, you shouldn’t wait for a comparison, if you’ve interviewed them and you believe in their skills then you should just offer them a job! Delays may just mean you will be duelling with competing offers and having to entice them away from a competitor.

Alex says she has had many experiences where people in senior positions such as General Counsel won’t appoint a firm to act for them or advise them because they have had such a bad experience historically when applying for a role.  Unbeknown to the firm, a poor candidate experience could literally be worth tens of thousands of dollars in future legal fees.   

14 Years – The Highlights

Alex loves the fact that Senior Lawyers that she now deals with she once recruited as an Articled Clerk. Her network returns to her repeatedly over the course of their career. One lawyer last week came back after a 10-year stellar career at a firm ready for their next role and wanting the same great experience and outcome as the early 2010’s!

Alex says that the growth of the in-house legal market has been particularly exciting with it now making up more than 50% of ACE revenue. She still gets a thrill in finding a hardworking, undervalued, much deserving lawyer with “job lotto” that is, a dream job that pays well, offers them a great culture, some work life balance and a challenging and satisfying role.

At ACE their core values of transparency and authenticity guides their daily operations, ensuring that they provide the highest possible level of service to all that they deal with.

When reflecting on the founder’s journey Alex says she is most proud of the high-profile clients that have sought our services and the trust placed in her company by individuals at crucial points in their careers. Memorable moments include helping candidates secure their dream jobs and mentoring team members like Sophie and Jennifer, who have grown their careers at ACE while balancing their roles as working mothers.

Alex says she lucked out 6 years ago, finding Sophie who started her career as a property lawyer and was looking for a career change. She is incredibly proud to have played a part in developing Sophie into an outstanding legal recruiter with a network of her own and an ability to run senior campaigns for both in-house and private practice.

Jennifer started out managing social media in the early days of ACE and now some 12 years later is a talent resourcer and looks after client service. It is most likely to be Jennifer at the other end of the phone when you call ACE to discuss that new dream role.

Alex wants to take a moment to thank Sophie and Jennifer for all that they have done in helping her to build Alex Correa Executive. She loves the fact that their roles deliver them the flexibility that Alex once wanted so dearly and celebrates their success in their roles.

As a leader and entrepreneur, Alex learned early on the importance of empathy, delegation, and continuous learning. Building a strong team has taught her valuable lessons in leadership, and she strives to put herself into her team’s shoes daily.

Looking ahead, ACE aims to continue to honour their mission, broadening their scope in the corporate space, and continuing to offer development opportunities for their in-house team. They remain committed to supporting lawyers in building their careers and achieving their aspirations.

ACE's legacy will be one of industry impact, and a solid reputation for transparency, and authenticity. They are not a transactional recruitment firm; they are a partner in career development, supporting lawyers at different stages of their career, whether they find them a job or simply offer advice. Alex’s succession planning will ensure that the business will continue to thrive and support the legal community long after she steps down. Not that she is thinking about that yet! There is still too much to do and achieve.  As ACE celebrates 14 years, they look forward proudly and gratefully to many more years of success and positive impact in the legal recruitment industry.

If you need are looking to recruit legal professionals within your organisation and need advice as to available talent and current market rates, then get in touch. We can help you find your next high performer. Contact Alex, Sophie or Jennifer here.