SP Search & Consulting

Expert consultants with unrivalled knowledge of the Australian legal market.

We are a small firm of experienced professional consultants. We know the Australian legal market better than anyone. We are trusted advisers to senior management on their most important projects.

Our clients include the largest International and National law firms in the country as well as mid-tier firms and niche practices. Some are long term players in the market and some are new entrants. The best law firms know that they can never stand still, they are ambitious and are always looking for improvement. We work with senior management at law firms to clarify strategy, improve management and recruit the very best people to enable them to meet their goals.

Scarlis Pringle was founded by Steven Scarlis in 1996 and quickly became the preeminent legal recruitment firm in Australia. In 2018 the firm was renamed and expanded to become SP Search & Consulting.

HEAD OF SEARCH

Steven Scarlis

Steven is Australia’s leading executive search consultant for the legal profession. Steven uses his specialist expertise and unrivalled contacts in the market to assist top-tier law firms achieve their ambitions, through strategic lateral Partner acquisitions.

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CAREER OVERVIEW

Steven Scarlis started his career with a leading Australian law firm, before joining an international executive search firm.

In 1996 he founded Scarlis Pringle to focus exclusively on top tier, partner level legal recruitment.

The firm has completed innumerable successful legal search assignments and has been instrumental in reshaping several leading law firms through market leading lateral hires. In addition, SP Search has undertaken numerous Senior General Counsel assignment for ASX top 200 Companies and Private offices.

Steven is also known for his strategic consulting work for law firms, assisting in new office openings and reform of partner remuneration systems.

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HEAD OF CONSULTING

Gavin Bell

Gavin has spent his career working in, leading and advising professional service firms.

After a long career as a practising partner, he became CEO of one of Australia’s pre-eminent law firms, Freehills and then Global CEO of leading global law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills. The firm and he won multiple industry awards as Australia’s leading professional service firm, law firm and managing partner during his leadership.

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CAREER OVERVIEW

As CEO of Freehills, he led both the negotiation and implementation of the merger with Herbert Smith which, at the time, was the largest law firm merger ever undertaken. Gavin also served on the Board of Freehills/Herbert Smith Freehills for 20 years.

Gavin has also been a non-executive director of various ASX, government and charitable organisations. This includes Qantm Intellectual Property, one of Australia’s leading intellectual property firms.

Gavin was a long-term member of the Business Council of Australia and the Advisory Board of the Business School of UNSW. He holds a Master of Business Administration (Executive) from the Australian Graduate School of Management (UNSW) and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney.

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