Foley & Lardner LLP issued the following announcement on Sept. 23.
Foley & Lardner is pleased to announce that Jen Cafferty Patton has joined the firm as its first Chief Legal Talent Officer (CLTO). As CLTO, Patton is responsible for overseeing the firm’s legal talent development structure and leading all attorney recruitment, development and retention efforts, as well as all coaching and diversity and inclusion initiatives.
“Our newly created CLTO role is about recognizing a simple and powerful fact – that our firm’s greatest assets and strengths lie in our people,” said Jay Rothman, firm Chairman & CEO. “By creating this position, and appointing Jen to fill it, we’re strategically focusing on attracting the right talent, while simultaneously providing attorneys and staff with successful and professionally satisfying careers. We’re especially excited to see how Jen’s unique point of view from her time as an attorney and as a law firm administrator can help in such areas as augmenting our recruiting process and enhancing our professional development programs.”
In addition to overseeing recruiting, professional development, diversity and inclusion, and alumni efforts, Patton will be charged with helping the firm differentiate itself in the talent marketplace – including evaluating the firm’s recruiting and retention processes and determining where there are opportunities to innovate.
“I’m thrilled to join Foley and step into this new position,” said Patton. “Foley’s lawyers are deeply committed to their clients, communities and each other. To recognize and encourage that continued commitment, we must recruit the highest-level legal talent, train them to be the best lawyers they can be and support the ultimate career goals of team members across our organization.”
Joining Foley from Vinson & Elkins LLP, Patton understands the challenges for attorneys in selecting a law firm to work at, as well as building a successful practice and ultimately creating a meaningful career. In her prior role as director of professional development, Patton oversaw a range of attorney development initiatives, including professional skills training, continuing legal education programming, on-demand learning, individual coaching, and all attorney onboarding, orientation and integration efforts. Prior to that, she spent four years as a director of lateral recruitment where she oversaw global lateral recruiting efforts.
Patton will be based in Foley’s Houston office. She earned her J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law and her B.A., cum laude, from Rice University.