The flexible legal talent company Latitude Legal has grown quickly in recent years, including by adding corporate offices in different parts of the U.S.

Latitude focuses on providing attorneys with in-house and Big Law experience to legal departments and law firms for contract engagements.

In hopes of further boosting its market share across sectors and geography, Latitude has hired Alex Su as the company’s chief revenue officer.

Su, who most recently worked as the head of community development at Ironclad, has cultivated a large social media following for both the serious and lighthearted commentary he provides about the legal industry.

Ross Booher, Latitude’s CEO, said he’s been impressed by how Su writes engagingly about different career opportunities for legal professionals and key legal innovation trends.

Booher is hoping Su can use his platform to widely share how Latitude can serve a variety of businesses, and he said Su’s experience working in Big Law and selling legal technology will help in his new role.

“He has a similar background as our core team members but this very specialized experience of effectively communicating with our audience, and so I think that's going to be a great combination and a great addition to our approach,” Booher told Legal Dive. “What we think Alex can do is help us reach a much broader audience.”

Joining Latitude

Su, who served as a Latitude advisor starting in 2023 before recently joining the company as its chief revenue officer, said he was attracted to the flexible talent provider because of its track record of success in the legal industry.

Latitude, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is globally ranked by Chambers & Partners and was recently recognized by the National Law Journal as the best legal staffing provider for attorneys and as the best legal recruiter.

Su said Latitude has received such recognition because it has made its existing clients successful, and the company has benefited from having a client services team made-up of professionals who have held senior decision-making roles at legal departments and large law firms.

In his new position, Su said he hopes to raise Latitude’s profile by highlighting the role a flexible talent provider can play in both serving businesses and aiding the careers of legal professionals.

“I think there's a huge opportunity to let the legal community know about what's available with modern flex talent,” Su told Legal Dive. “For example, I think many law firms and legal departments aren't aware of the caliber of contract attorneys available. We're talking about Big Law associates and partner-level types of personnel.”

“On the other side, many attorneys are not aware that you can do sophisticated work on a flexible basis serving the same types of clients you would be in a traditional setting,” Su continued.

Su said he plans to use social media and other tools to share stories about how legal departments have benefited from using flexible talent and how legal professionals have advanced their careers while being part of Latitude’s network.

Executive role

For Su, a former Sullivan & Cromwell associate, serving as Latitude’s chief revenue officer is his first time holding an executive leadership post.

Su said he has spent his career seeking to find the answer to one key question: How do you convince lawyers to innovate?

This interest in legal innovation led him to take on sales roles at legal technology startups, including Logikcull and Evisort.

Most recently, he worked for three years at the AI-powered contract lifecycle management provider Ironclad, which he noted has a reputation for very innovative marketing.

Su’s job as Ironclad’s head of community development required him “to drive brand awareness and sales through unconventional marketing techniques via social media, conferences and other in-person events.”

Su said his different professional experiences have given him a unique perspective on the legal market and effectively prepared him for his position at Latitude.

“This role will help me combine everything I've done and have a bigger impact,” Su said.

Legal department offerings

Latitude serves a wide array of legal departments, ranging from those at Fortune 500 companies to in-house legal teams at startups, Booher said.

The company’s bread-and-butter service is providing on-demand legal talent to its clients, but it offers recruiting services as well.

Legal practice areas with high demand include data privacy, healthcare law, corporate governance and securities, litigation and corporate contracting. 

Booher said sometimes legal departments will retain Latitude attorneys on an engagement basis to demonstrate to their broader business the need for a particular role.

In-house legal teams also will use Latitude lawyers to help implement legal innovation projects, to cover for an in-house counsel out on leave, to fill open positions during hiring freezes using outside counsel spend and to provide surge capacity, he said.

Meanwhile, the permanent roles Latitude recruits for include chief legal officer, general counsel, chief compliance officer, in-house counsel and head of legal operations.

“For many of our clients, we'll provide both their permanent team members when they have openings and on-demand contract talent for needs where a permanent hire is not possible or needed,” Booher said.

He said Latitude hopes to serve more legal departments of all sizes and continue to grow its attorney network, including by further expanding its corporate presence across the country.

The talent provider has lawyers in all 50 states and corporate offices in 12 locations.

“We are in the process of opening more offices throughout the United States, and so Alex is going to be playing a key part in that as well,” Booher said.