Gregg Ziskind, 1944 -- 2025

Gregg Ziskind, a pioneer in the legal recruiting industry, died Monday. He was 81.

"Gregg may have been one of the most brilliant humans I have ever met," Larry Watanabe of the recruiting firm Watanabe Schwartz said. Ziskind mentored Watanabe - and many other recruiters in California. "He spawned at least a quarter of the recruiting community. He really created the industry entirely," Watanabe said.

"He was an OG. He was there at the beginning," said Valerie Fontaine of SeltzerFontaine, another longtime recruiter, who first met Ziskind in 1981 and worked on deals with him occasionally over the years.

Born Aug. 22, 1944, Ziskind graduated from UCLA School of Law in 1972, and practiced corporate, securities and real estate law in Los Angeles before he entered the virtually nonexistent legal search business in 1978.

With partner Michael Greene, Ziskind built Ziskind Greene into what was then California's largest legal recruiting firm, with offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco and San Diego. He also helped professionalize the industry nationwide as a founder and board member of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants, chair of its Ethics Committee, and author of its national Code of Ethics, and he wrote and spoke extensively on lateral hiring and legal search.

Ziskind had a big and at times boastful personality that fueled his visibility and helped grow the business, even as it occasionally strained relationships within the industry. He regularly ran full-page Daily Journal advertisements touting his accomplishments.

"He was loud and more than proud," Watanabe said.

Ziskind hoped the National Association of Legal Search Consultants would serve a similar role for recruiters as the State Bar does for attorneys. But in a 2001 article in the Daily Journal, recruiters - some of whom he had worked with and mentored - dismissed the idea because the organization had no enforcement mechanism other than excommunication.

In fact, as one observer noted, Ziskind himself was expelled from the organization in the 1990s because of his involvement with Emplawyernet, a venture capital-backed online recruiting service that used emerging technology to match attorneys with law firms. Although his role did not technically violate the organization's ethics rules, it alienated members--particularly after he ran newspaper ads declaring, "Take the chilling effect out of a headhunter fee by going with Emplawyernet."

"Emplawyernet scared a lot of people kind of like AI is scaring people today. They thought it would be the end" of the recruiting profession, Fontaine said. "We've matured as an industry. I think if Emplawyernet came along now, people wouldn't be scared."

Ziskind again stirred controversy within the industry in 2013 when he sued Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, alleging the firm breached an oral recruiting agreement by paying a competing headhunter. Although he prevailed--winning $335,000 in damages, an award later upheld on appeal--the very act of suing a major law firm over a recruiting dispute was viewed by some as a step few in the profession were willing to take.

Watanabe and his longtime business partner, Bill Nason, left Ziskin's firm after Ziskin made an unsuccessful merger attempt with a Texas firm. But Watanabe said any business disputes or differences in style never took away from the relationship he had with Ziskind.

"I was blessed to have joined Gregg," he said. "He trained me. He was my mentor. I was his star."

The firm, now Ziskind Greene & Karr LLC, confirmed Ziskind's death. He is survived by his wife of more than 40 years, Susan Ziskind; his first wife, Geri Ziskind-Boltax; sister Trudy Ziskind; and daughters Michelle Ziskind and Jessica Ziskind-Bloodworth.