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Chuck Fanning is a partner working out of the San Francisco and Palo Alto offices of Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), described by The American Lawyer as ''in a league apart'' from its competitors and voted the ''best legal search firm in the United States'' by WorldLaw Business magazine.
As head of the firm’s Partner Practice Group, Chuck is the leader of the most successful law firm partner placement team in the world. His group, including members in each of the firm’s 21 domestic and international offices, has more than a century of combined legal search experience and has placed partners with more than 100 different law firms worldwide.
Chuck’s practice is exclusively dedicated to advising law firm partners (individuals and groups) about the various alternatives available to them in the marketplace. With a law firm client list that has grown over two decades to include more than 90 firms in the Bay Area alone, Chuck is uniquely positioned to educate the candidates he represents about the broadest range of potentially appropriate opportunities. Law firm partners who work with Chuck gain discreet access to key decision makers and to the type of in-depth information about these firms that is critical in making an informed career decision. These lawyers benefit from credibility earned, and information gathered, since MLA was founded in 1982.
This type of in-depth information can be particularly important when candidates are considering firms that are recent entrants to a market. In most cases MLA has developed its information through having worked with these firms in other markets for many years. (In contrast, most local recruiting firms’ knowledge about new entrants to a market is limited to what can be gleaned from marketing materials and a typically brief conversation with a hiring partner or recruiting coordinator). Chuck also distinguishes himself from other recruiters by his ability to provide resources and counsel on some of the more sensitive topics associated with lateral moves, including issues relating to fiduciary duties and partnership compensation.
Chuck and his Bay Area team have compiled a track record of success that cannot be matched by any other recruiter or organization, including partner and/or practice group placements at most of the major law firms in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. A partial list includes: Morrison & Foerster; Heller Ehrman; Cooley Godward; Pillsbury Winthrop; Fenwick & West; Wilson Sonsini; Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe; Morgan Lewis; Paul Hastings; Gibson Dunn; Latham & Watkins; Shearman & Sterling; Jones Day; Akin Gump; Winston & Strawn; Ropes & Gray; Kirkpatrick & Lockhart; Sonnenschein; and Davis Wright Tremaine.
Chuck earned his B.A. with high honors from the University of Virginia in 1981 and his J.D. from UCLA Law School in 1985. He practiced law with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker before going into legal search in 1989. | 