Macrae Elevates 5 Managing Directors to Partner
Elite Transatlantic Legal Search Firm Promotes Recruiters Justine Donahue, Adil Lalani, Rachel Nonaka, Sarah Morris, and Eleonora Wäktare
From top L to R: Eleonora Wäktare (London), Justine Donahue (Washington, D.C.), Rachel Nonaka (Washington, D.C.), Adil Lalani (London), and Sarah Morris (San Francisco Bay Area).
Macrae, a premier transatlantic legal search firm that places partners and groups at the world’s leading law firms, announced today that five managing directors have been promoted to the firm’s partnership. The new partners are Sarah Morris in the San Francisco Bay Area, Justine Donahue and Rachel Nonaka in Washington, D.C., and Adil Lalani and Eleonora Wäktare in London. Macrae’s team of 20 recruiters firmwide now includes 11 partners.
“I couldn’t be happier to welcome Sarah, Justine, Rachel, Adil and Eleonora to the partnership. Macrae’s clients, candidates and team members firmwide have benefited tremendously from the skill and passion each of them brings to their work,” said Joe Macrae, Founder and Chairman.
“The recruiting profession is often stereotyped as a fiercely competitive individual sport, even among colleagues – and there’s truth in that. We set out to build a different kind of firm, one powered not by sharp elbows but by transparency, the sharing of intelligence across markets, and the recognition that every ‘win’ requires a group effort. The fact that a record five recruiters have achieved partnership status this year, including two who began their recruiting careers here, is a testament to our distinct business and cultural model.”
The new partners:
Justine Donahue (Washington, D.C.): Donahue represents partners, partner groups and senior government attorneys across practice areas, with a special interest in antitrust. Prior to becoming a recruiter in 2014, her career as an antitrust lawyer encompassed a decade in private practice and several years at the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. Donahue, who holds a JD from American University, Washington College of Law, joined Macrae in 2021.
Adil Lalani (London): Lalani has more than 20 years of experience executing a range of exclusive partner searches and representing partners and teams across practice areas. In the course of his career, which has included operating his own boutique search firm for six years, he has acquired a deep understanding of the London market and, critically, how it ties into international firms’ global presence and ambitions. He joined Macrae in 2023.
Sarah Morris (San Francisco): Morris represents partners and partner groups across practice areas, including private equity M&A, public company M&A, capital markets, tax, restructuring and bankruptcy, and litigation. Before transitioning to recruiting in 2012, she was a corporate attorney for five years at Skadden, with a focus on M&A and corporate finance. Morris, who holds a JD from Berkeley Law School, joined Macrae in 2021.
Rachel Nonaka (Washington, D.C.): Nonaka represents senior government attorneys, partners and partner groups across practice areas. Prior to joining Macrae in 2020, she served for over a decade as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, investigating and bringing white collar securities enforcement actions. She holds a JD from the Villanova University School of Law.
Eleonora Wäktare (London): Wäktare represents partners and partner groups across practice areas in London, Brussels, Paris, Germany and Luxembourg, and advises global law firms seeking to strengthen their presence in these markets. Prior to joining Macrae in 2019, she practiced competition law at WilmerHale and Covington & Burling and was a case-handler at the Directorate-General for Competition at the European Commission. She holds an LLM from the College of Europe and a law degree from the University of Liège.
About Macrae
Macrae is a transatlantic legal search firm with offices in London, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Palo Alto. Macrae works with the most successful and innovative law firms in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe to bring on top lateral partners and partner groups and open new offices. The firm’s expertise also includes representing high-performing partners seeking to make strategic moves and senior government attorneys transitioning to private practice. Its commitment to furthering inclusion and diversity in the legal industry is reflected in the candidates it represents as well as within the firm. Macrae is a majority women-owned business, and over 80% of team members identify as belonging to demographic groups that are underrepresented within the legal industry.