About Us

Henley Reid shapes the future success of law firms, legal teams and professionals through targeted, bespoke recruitment and career advisory services. Our consultants have all practised as lawyers, meaning we understand your firm and the pressures under which you operate. Above all we are strategic, transparent and personal providing both the foresight and future focus you require to develop either your own career, or that of your legal team.

Our Firm

Strategic. Transparent. Personal.

We generate long-term career progression for you, your team and firm, enabling you to exceed your professional career goals.

We specialise in senior level assignments with top tier national, international and highly regarded medium-sized firms, as well as in-house assignments for large blue-chip and ASX-listed organisations within Australia and across the globe.

Our deep expertise and insights as practiced lawyers enable us to execute a strategic and commercial plan for your career, ensuring it is both considered and successful. And we achieve this because we don’t just listen to you. We identify with you; driving your career, firm and team upwards.

The Team

Specialist recruitment and executive search solutions for legal teams and professionals

Samantha Cowling

Managing Director

Samantha Cowling is the Managing Director and Founder of Henley Reid.

Drawing on her first-hand knowledge of the legal sector’s business pressures, she offers highly consultative executive search and recruitment solutions. Sam is a trusted advisor to a significant client base of highly regarded firms and in-house teams in the Australian market. She plays an instrumental role in identifying and executing key hires that aligns the interests of all parties.

Sam represents Partners, General Counsel, Special Counsel and Senior Associates, working closely with lawyers to understand their specific career objectives before advising upon and executing a focused and proactive recruitment strategy.

As a qualified Executive Coach, Sam pairs her expertise with executive coaching for lawyers. Her coaching programme stretches individual capabilities, assists with role transitions and uncovers potential roadblocks so that lawyers succeed to their maximum potential.

Sam qualified as a lawyer in 2001 and practiced as a lawyer in Sydney and London before transitioning into executive search and career change in 2005. She has been an executive search specialist within the legal sector for the last 19 years.

Simon Scott

Director

Simon Scott is a Director at Henley Reid.

He specialises on the cross-border markets, as well as domestic placements and projects across the APAC region. In addition to assisting lawyers secure opportunities overseas he also has in-depth experience developing and executing search and recruitment plans and strategies for national and global clients within the jurisdictions of Australia, Asia, UK, Middle East and USA.

Simon spent time working in-house with a top tier law firm in Australia where he gained valuable insight and expertise. He is skilled in providing lawyers with the necessary know how in order for them to be able to navigate through their legal careers and provides clients with valuable recruitment advice at both the strategic and operational level.

Simon originally qualified and worked as a lawyer in Australia as well as at a Magic Circle firm in London for a number of years before entering the executive search and talent acquisition space and has extensive experience working with lawyers at all levels across the global legal markets, including London, New York, the Middle East and across Asia.

Bartu Atamert

Associate Director

Bartu is an Associate Director at Henley Reid.

He works closely with domestic and international law firms at various stages of growth, ranging from full service national and international law firms, fast growing challenger firms, and in-house organisations.

Bartu’s expertise spans all industry sectors and he offers depth of experience for lawyer’s looking to pursue their long term career goals. He is highly skilled in creating and executing hiring strategies for law firms and legal teams looking to build a practice, make a strategic hire or navigate change, acting as a true partner to firms and companies going through periods of growth.

He works closely with lawyers looking to make career defining moves, focusing on Lawyer, Associate, Senior Associate, Special Counsel, and in-house Counsel appointments.

Originally from the UK, Bartu has worked as a specialist legal recruiter in London and Australia and has a deep network across Europe and APAC. His personal approach to recruitment has made him a trusted advisor to clients and candidates at important, career defining turning points.

Michelle Bingham

Head of Talent

Michelle is the Head of Talent at Henley Reid.

She has lived and worked as a professional legal researcher in both the UK and Australia since 2005. She is highly experienced in identifying and headhunting high calibre lawyers from across the globe for top tier law firms in the UK, Australia, South Africa, The United States, the Middle East and Asia.

Michelle supports Henley Reid on both retained and contingent Partner searches within Australia and internationally. She is responsible for researching the appropriate legal markets to discover the most appropriate legal talent for our clients through utilising a variety of sophisticated research methodology. She has been instrumental in numerous national and international Partner searches including identifying multiple partners for a White Shoe US firm office start up, a Managing Partner and team move across Asia and a number individual partner and team moves across Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.

Her highly regarded level of knowledge on the Australian and international legal market, and key Partners and firms within every discipline, as well as her gravitas with Partners and lawyers alike, make her a key component of every executive search undertaken by Henley Reid.