Discretion
Confidence kept, on both sides, without exception.
The Firm
Deep enough to know the market. Small enough to know you.
MKA Associates is a specialist legal recruitment firm with one field of practice: the corporate finance market, and the lawyers who make it run.
Why we exist
Built for one market.
Corporate finance law is its own world. Reputations travel by transaction, and the difference between two seemingly identical CVs can be an entire client base. Generalist recruitment flattens those distinctions; we built MKA Associates to work inside them.
Because the field is narrow, we can know it properly. And because we are small, the person you brief is the person who runs the search.
How we practise
Four working principles.
Precision
Shortlists built from evidence — deal sheets, practice knowledge, references — not keyword matches.
Candour
If a brief is unrealistic, or a move is wrong, we say so early.
The long view
Success is measured at the first anniversary, not the invoice date.
Our approach
The search, in full.
The brief
Before any names: the deal flow the hire must serve, the team it joins, and what must be true in three years. A written brief is agreed before the search begins.
Market mapping
A systematic map of the realistic pool — who does the work, where, and what would credibly move them. Clients see the map, not just the shortlist.
The approach
Personal and discreet. No name travels in either direction without consent; interest is tested before anyone's time is spent.
Appointment & aftercare
We stay in the room through offer, references, resignation and notice — and in touch through the first year, on both sides.
Conduct
Standards we hold ourselves to.
We operate under UK recruitment legislation and the UK GDPR, and treat the profession's norms — confidentiality, conflicts awareness, candour — as binding on us too. References are only ever taken with consent.
Next step
Meet us properly.
The best way to judge a search firm is a conversation. We are happy to be judged.