Recruiters | Results

Mestel & Company is the nation’s leading attorney placement firm.  Founded in 1987, we have assisted the careers of individual associates, partners and in-house counsel and to help effectuate the movement of groups and law firm mergers.

Alan D. Surchin, Esq. Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Alan graduated from the Duke University School of Law, where he was Executive Editor of the Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law. He received his undergraduate degree in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia. Alan is a native New Yorker who began his legal career practicing in Simpson Thacher’s M&A and Private Equity group. He later joined the technology law group at Kramer Levin before founding a venture capital accelerator specializing in the early-stage financing of high-growth technology companies. Prior to joining Mestel and Company, Alan was a Senior Executive Recruiter for a well known legal recruiting boutique. He helped to establish the lateral partner practice group at the firm and placed attorneys of all levels into law firms and in house legal departments. Alan is active in the New York City Bar Association and has been called upon by Duke University School of Law and the University of Virginia Alumni Association to counsel students and alumni of all levels on career development and job search strategies. At Mestel, Alan focuses his work on recruiting partners for law firms.

Diane Hewitt Associate Director
A Smith College graduate and legal recruiter for over 18 years, Diane’s success stems from her vast legal contacts, in-depth market knowledge, genuine sensitivity towards candidates and commitment to providing accurate information. She works with both partners and associates in the New York and national legal markets. In addition, Diane participates in national championship bicycle racing and is an avid golfer.

Eilene Bloom Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Eilene was the first female Corporate Vice President at one of the top NYSE-traded insurance companies in the United States. Eilene spent 20 years with this firm working with recruiters to hire senior level executives (including staffing an in-house legal department). Prior to joining Mestel & Company, Eilene was Director of Partner Placements for a national legal attorney placement company. She entered the legal recruiting professional because of her strong human resource background and knowledge of what she wanted as a “client.” Eilene received her B.A. magna cum laude from Queens College.

Geraldine Reich Director
With fifteen years of industry experience, Geraldine manages the Mestel team of recruiters who place associates. She is especially known for her wit, compassion and sensitivity to the long-term importance of each and every attorney's career aspirations. She is an avid and knowledgeable devotee of opera, ballet and the New York Yankees. Geraldine has a B.A. in anthropology from Hunter College.

Isabelle A. Laskin Associate Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Isabelle graduated from SUNY at Binghamton and later completed much of her M.B.A. at Bernard Baruch College. She has diverse experience in the recruiting industry which includes legal, medical and business sectors. Isabelle studied abroad in Cardiff, South Wales, and loves international travel and classical music.

Jane Aquilina Associate Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Jane is a member of Mestel & Company's national Partners, Groups and Mergers practice and works out of our New York office. She joined Mestel after working in the New York office of another national legal search firm where she worked in their partner practice group. Prior to relocating to New York from her native San Francisco, Jane was an associate producer for Working Assets Radio-KALW-FM with writer and radio host Laura Flanders (Radio Nation). In her spare time, Jane enjoys writing, cooking and theatre.

Jennifer Brown Associate Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Jennifer has had an extensive and diverse career. After graduating from Stanford University with a B.A. in Economics with honors, Jennifer joined a major international law firm where she worked as a paralegal. Jennifer later worked at two premier search firms, placing lawyers and executives in the financial industry, before joining Mestel & Company.

Jill Goldman, Esq. Director
Jill has been recruiting at Mestel & Company for over ten years. She is an experienced attorney and human resource professional. Her broad perspective on the legal market and its unique personnel needs makes her a strong asset to our firm. Prior to joining Mestel & Company, Jill worked for a bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York. She has a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and during college at Syracuse University lived and studied in Japan.

Kimberley E. Neufeld, Esq. Associate Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Prior to joining Mestel & Company in 2000, Kim had a successful career practicing international tax with a “Big Four” accounting firm. With her extensive knowledge of the New York and Washington legal markets, and her in-depth knowledge of the practice of law, Kim has assisted in the placement of many significant practice groups and individual partners. Kim is a graduate of McGill University Law School, where she was a member of the Law Journal.

Lorraine R. Bowman Associate Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Prior to returning to the New York office of Mestel & Company in the Partners, Groups, and Mergers division, Lorraine opened the San Francisco office of Mestel & Company where she was the Managing Director. Lorraine also worked in the Los Angeles office. Upon receiving her J.D. from New York Law School, she joined a prominent litigation boutique law firm in New York working on primarily securities litigation and white collar criminal matters. During law school, she interned at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, SDNY, Criminal Division and the New York State Attorney General’s Office, Investment Protection Bureau. After graduating from American University with honors, Lorraine worked as a litigation paralegal at major law firms in Washington, D.C. and Boston. Lorraine’s extensive recruiting and diverse hands-on legal experience gives her a true insight into the ever changing legal market.

Lynn Mestel, Esq. President and Founder
Lynn began her career as a marketing executive at one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi, working on Procter & Gamble products, an experience which gives her unique insight into the business and marketing of law. She is frequently quoted in national and regional legal and business publications, and has chaired numerous conferences on lateral partners, law firm management, and temporary legal staffing. Ms. Mestel has served on the New York County Lawyer’s Association committee on "Changing Trends in the Profession” and has been a panelist for The Association of the Bar of the City of New York committee on “Legal and Ethical Issues Raised by Partner Departures”. Lynn is an accomplished consultant and business woman recognized by many organizations, including the National Association of Women Business Owners. In 2006, Lynn was a participant and member of the 2006 Clinton Global Initialive. Lynn is a graduate of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

Nancy Wein, Esq. Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
After practicing law for fourteen years including as a partner at a small NYC general commercial firm where she concentrated in Trusts and Estates, Nancy went directly into the search field. She has had long term experience, focusing on partner placement and associate placement at all levels into law firms and in-house positions. Nancy earned her J.D. from the College of William & Mary, and her B.A. in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her husband and daughter. Nancy enjoys spending her free time with family and friends, cooking, walking her dog in Riverside Park and attending cultural activities.

Nicole Constance Associate Director
Nicole has had an extensive and diverse career in business and legal search. After graduating from the University of Hartford with a B.A. degree in English and History, Nicole went on to work for Revlon as Associate Director of Business Initiatives and later as an associate within a newly formed Marketing Department and the Internal Communications Division at Deloitte LLP. After four years at Deloitte, she went on to work for one of the top financial hedge fund companies in New York City. While contemplating attending law school, she decided to work side by side with lawyers in a boutique legal search firm in Manhattan focusing on research and in-house business development for 5 years.

Roger Hsia, Esq. Director, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Roger earned his JD from The University of Texas School of Law. He graduated from The University of Michigan with a B.A. in Honors English. After graduating from law school, Roger engaged in general corporate, securities, real estate and other transactional work for two prominent mid-sized law firms. Prior to joining Mestel and Company, Roger was a Managing Director for a top legal recruiting boutique and has placed numerous partners and associates into law firms and corporations.

Samuel Roberts, Esq. National Sr. Exec. Dir, Partners, Groups, Mergers
Since joining the company in 1998, Sam has spear-headed the company's lateral partner efforts in the New York office and has played a major role in developing the company’s Boston and Chicago offices. Sam practiced law for nearly twenty years, the last four as a partner in a mid sized law firm and, for the nine years before that, as corporate counsel to a large, privately held energy company. Prior to joining Mestel & Company, Sam was director of partner placements for a national legal attorney placement company, a subsidiary of one of the world's largest staffing organizations. In addition, he was for several years president of a China-based pharmaceutical and medical imaging company that imported and exported products to and from several Asian and Latin American countries. Sam was, at one time, voluntary counsel to the East West Cultural Studies Program, a not-for-profit organization promoting art exchanges between Japan and the United States. Sam is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, where he was Notes Editor of the Law Review. He has authored several publications in the area of constitutional law, trademark and admiralty.

Ty Rugman Managing Director
Prior to becoming a recruiter, Ty worked in the New York, European and Asian offices of a Top Five international law firm. For over ten years he has placed attorneys nationally and internationally in-house and with leading law firms. Ty’s experience at the head and branch office level gives him a particular sensitivity to demands placed on attorneys. He has written for the The New York Law Journal and is often called upon to counsel law firms, corporations and financial institutions, as well as law students on career development and staffing issues. He is recognized as a leader in the legal community for his market knowledge and ability to match candidates with appropriate platforms for success.