As an international law firm with offices in Canada, the U.Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, we’re proud to recruit and retain top talent who bring energy, insight, and a singular focus on delivering exceptional experiences – for our clients and each other. We’re intentional about building a workplace that’s both high-performing and supportive, ensuring that everyone is empowered to do their best work and reach their full potential. These values shape how we collaborate, lead, and succeed – across teams, time zones, and career paths. As an international law firm with offices in Canada, the U.Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, we’re proud to recruit and retain top talent who bring energy, insight, and a singular focus on delivering exceptional experiences – for our clients and each other. We’re intentional about building a workplace that’s both high-performing and supportive, ensuring that everyone is empowered to do their best work and reach their full potential. These values shape how we collaborate, lead, and succeed – across teams, time zones, and career paths. Director, Legal Talent is a skilled senior professional manager focused on leading the recruitment, development, engagement, retention and career advancement of associates and law students, within the Disputes Department, working in close collaboration with the Department Chair, Practice Group Leaders and Practice Director. As a member of the Legal Talent shared services team, the Director, Legal Talent implements strategic and talent management initiatives that are aligned to the Firm's Strategic Plan, and our core values. This role collaborates with our other shared services functions (Finance, other People &

• Culture teams, Business Development &

• Marketing, Information Technology &

• AI, Innovation &

• Knowledge and Operations) to ensure Firm strategies, direction and resources are implemented effectively for legal talent development. This position is open to candidates across Canada, in any of our Canadian office locations (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Waterloo, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Montréal), with preference given to candidates based in the Calgary area. Implement and manage associate and student focused integration, engagement, retention and career advancement initiatives, including by building relationships with associates and students, monitoring workloads, overseeing the delivery of training programs, providing guidance and career coaching, delivering performance feedback, ensuring appropriate mentorship, etc. (Work with Department Chair, Practice Group Leaders and Practice Director, as appropriate to help ensure that associates are on track for success and are meeting or exceeding billable targets. Work closely with the Learning and Development and the AI, Innovation &





• Knowledge teams to deliver internal learning paths/programs to associates Monitor associate capacity and work allocation in collaboration with Department Chairs, Practice Group Leaders and Practice Directors, to support balanced, efficient legal working teams.

Associate Performance Management & Compensation: Review and interpret reporting and insights on associate performance metrics to support decision making by Department Chair, Practice Group Leaders and Practice Director. Track performance against professional development goals and career progression metrics.

Associate Recruitment & Complement Management: Support associate recruitment initiatives by working with Department Chair and Practice Group Leaders to determine lateral hiring requirements, manage the recruitment process, prepare business cases for associate hires, etc. Collaborate with Finance, Department Chairs, Practice Group Leaders and Practice Directors to monitor associate complement and capacity levels to support balanced, effective legal working teams. Lead lateral associate recruitment efforts, including candidate sourcing, screening, interview coordination, business case development and offer management.

Maintain visibility of associate recruitment needs across practice groups and support Practice Group Leaders to address challenges, as needed.

Law Student Programs & Recruitment: Maintain oversight and accountability for the entire life cycle of the law student experience for summer and articling students, including recruitment, orientation, training, performance management, evaluation and hire-back processes, etc. Provide guidance on recruitment best practices and provide periodic reporting to help inform recruitment strategies. Liaise with the Bar as needed to ensure compliance with regulatory and reporting requirements relating to law students.

Ensure regular touchpoints and communication with law students throughout their summer and articling terms. Monitor budget performance for associate and student programs, including recruitment, training, events and professional development expenses. Oversee expense management for associate and student programs in partnership with the Senior Director Firm Legal Talent and Strategic Initiatives, Department Chairs Practice Group Leaders and Practice Directors and Office Managing Partners, as appropriate.

Collaborate with the Department Chair,



Practice Group Leaders and Practice Director to shape and execute legal talent strategies in alignment with the Firm's strategic plan. Partner with the AI, Innovation and Knowledge team to optimize the deployment of innovative practice tools amongst associates and within the Legal Talent Programs and act as a champion for innovation. Identify opportunities to transform or optimize legal talent processes and programs, in partnership with AI, Innovation and Knowledge.

JD or Bachelor's degree in law (depending on jurisdiction). A minimum of five (5) years of experience as a lawyer in a law firm. Prior experience in or a desire to build a career in legal talent management with demonstrated interest in, or previous experience supporting recruitment and professional development.

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including a comfort with public speaking. Relationship building with all levels of stakeholders. Strong project management, time management, administrative and organizational skills, with an ability to prioritize, plan, and implement numerous projects, programs, and special events.

Results-oriented with a sense of ownership and accountability for projects and tasks, and a strong work ethic with the ability to take initiative. Champion of DEI, wellbeing and performance, Produce a high quality and quantity of work product, occasionally under tight timelines. Bilingualism (French) is considered an asset.

Gowling WLG’s total rewards program is designed to foster a culture where high performance and personal well-being go hand-in-hand. 100% employer-paid health, dental, and mental health coverage, plus an annual lifestyle spending allowance ~ 15+ vacation days and hybrid work flexibility ~ Parental leave top-up for 26 weeks (after 12 months of full-time employment) ~ Group Retirement Savings Plan with employer match ~ Financial protection through short & long-term disability, life, accident & critical illness insurance ~ Employee & Family Assistance Program, guided CBT, and an internal network of 120+ trained Mental Health First Aid responders ~ Perks and preferred pricing programs, referral bonuses and more Starting salary will be determined based on location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, internal and market equity. Gowling WLG employees have the potential to exceed this range based on tenure and performance. Gowling WLG is recruiting for this role to support ongoing firm needs and team operations.

Gowling WLG may use tools within our applicant tracking system that include artificial intelligence-supported features, such as automated candidate matching. These tools do not make hiring decisions; Gowling WLG is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you are in need of accommodation or support at any time during the recruitment process, please let us know. #

📌 Summer Director (Canada)
🏢 Gowling WLG
📍 Canada