Preferred supplier success – Locum Head of Legal recruited within 3 weeks for Sheffield Hallam University

Overview 

Sheffield Hallam University is an award-winning university with around 32,000 students, 4,500 staff and 295,000 alumni around the globe.

Sellick Partnership was successfully appointed as a formal PSL supplier in September 2021, one of only two agencies appointed to support with the provision of professional services. We primarily support the university with specialist and/or difficult to fill roles and have successfully secured the placement of the following roles during the PSL lifecycle to date:

• Purchase Ledger Manager (temporary)
• Assistant Management Accountant (permanent)
• Property Solicitor (Locum)
• Head of Legal (Locum)

The latest appointment that we made through this PSL was for a Head of Legal on a temporary contract. 

Account Manager

The lead recruitment partner for the legal campaign was Sara Robinson, Manager. Sara specialises in legal recruitment within the public and not-for-profit sectors across Yorkshire. Joining Sellick Partnership in 2017, Sara has 7 years’ experience working with busy legal departments to source solicitors across a range of specialisms from Childcare through to Procurement. A trusted recruitment partner, Sara has worked to secure senior and executive appointments within local authority and higher education, and has a strong network of contacts that she can tap into. 

Vacancy management

The Head of Legal requirement was for an initial 6-month period following the promotion of the current Head of Legal to the Director of Legal position. The requirement was particularly challenging due to several pressures within the team, both internally and externally. 

Sara undertook a comprehensive job brief from the hiring manager to fully understand the job brief, essential requirements, key challenges and ideal timescales. 

With a wealth of experience in this market Sara immediately longlisted potential candidates within her existing network across both our CRM system and her LinkedIn networks. Following initial vetting, Sara shortlisted the strongest five candidates for the position. Two candidates were invited in for final stage interview with Sheffield Hallam University, before an offer was successfully managed through to on-boarding. Timescales between job receipt and start was just three weeks.