Building on our heritage in governance and In-House Legal recruitment, Danos Group has expanded into Private Practice Legal recruitment, supporting leading UK and U.S. law firms with senior, search-led hiring.
This evolution was a natural progression. Our long-standing work with General Counsel and senior legal leaders has given us direct access to lawyers operating at the highest levels of the market, alongside deep insight into the commercial and regulatory demands shaping modern legal practice.
Our Private Practice work is selective, discreet and predominantly search-led, focused on Associate, Senior Associate and Partner appointments within highly competitive practice areas.
How We Support Law Firms
Executive Search & Targeted Recruitment We work primarily on search mandates, identifying and engaging high-calibre lawyers who are not active in the recruitment market.
Associate, Senior Associate & Partner Hiring Support across key growth areas, succession planning and strategic lateral hires.
Market Intelligence & Advisory Practical insight on talent availability, competitor activity and hiring strategy within specific practice areas and jurisdictions.
Our approach reflects how leading law firms hire: selectively, confidentially and with a long-term view.
Senior Associate, elite U.S. corporate & finance law firm
Associate, Magic Circle UK law firm
Associate, international full-service U.S. law firm
Associate, corporate & finance-focused U.S. law firm
Associate, global full-service U.S. law firm
Meet Fergus McKay – Associate Director
Fergus McKay leads our Private Practice recruitment offering.
Fergus specialises in supporting leading international and U.S. law firms with senior Associate and Partner hiring. He has built trusted relationships with Partners, Associates and senior stakeholders across top-tier firms, providing clear, commercially grounded advice aligned to long-term firm strategy.
His consultative, relationship-driven approach ensures each search is conducted with precision, discretion and credibility — resulting in appointments that deliver immediate impact and long-term value.
Fergus holds an LLB in Scots Law from Glasgow Caledonian University.
Candidate Feedback
“I had an excellent experience working with Fergus. He took the time to really understand my career goals and priorities, offering thoughtful, tailored guidance rather than presenting opportunities that weren’t the right fit. His deep knowledge of the legal market and ability to provide clear, practical insights were invaluable in assessing options.
Fergus also leverages strong relationships with leading firms, which gave me confidence throughout the process and ultimately delivered a great outcome. Combined with his personable, approachable and trustworthy manner, this made him an outstanding partner in my search.”
Danos Associates offered much more than simply sourcing candidates.
They helped frame the scope of the search, giving context as to where we could search for our candidate pool and provided a commercial view of the labour market in this field and what we could expect… The shortlist of candidates we received was of a very high standard. Each candidate had been looked at critically.
Nicola SwannHR Director
Danos Consulting offered an excellent Interim Head of Compliance as a solution whilst undertaking our challenging permanent search mandate.
Danos Consulting really listened to our needs, parachuting in a candidate with the right technical skill set and personality. They really understood the DNA of our business which enabled them to provide support effectively when working to tight onboarding deadlines.
General Counsel, Niche Asset Management Firm
Danos Associates spend a lot of time getting to know your team and the culture, which makes it easier when new staff join the business.
In credit risk often the candidate pools have the same skill sets, however there are elements that the CV miss out. The Danos team work tirelessly to understand the skills levels of all candidates and most importantly, they get us quality candidates we can close and bring on board quickly.
Director of Model, Development Banking
Danos was referred to me as the best in the business.
I needed to find risk and compliance staff. My experience corroborates precisely that. Thorough, encyclopaedic market knowledge and execution orientated.
Hugo van VredenburchNon Executive Director, TMF Group
