Episode 6 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Mark Levin of Marshall Gerstein on The Lawyer Who Cracked the NFL's Hiring Code and Brought It Back to Big Law

Episode 6 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Mark Levin of Marshall Gerstein on The Lawyer Who Cracked the NFL's Hiring Code and Brought It Back to Big Law

August 27, 2026 · 28 min · Episode 306

About this episode

Mark Levin discusses the challenges of lateral hiring in the legal profession and shares insights from his experience in talent assessment.

Lateral hiring is currently at an all time high and the cost of getting it wrong runs into the billions, so why are firms still making critical hiring decisions without using the right tools to get it right. This week on CMO Series: Lateral and Mergers, we are pleased to share this brand new episode. Eugene McCormick is joined by Mark Levin, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Marshall Gerstein, Chicago's largest IP boutique firm. Mark has spent his career studying what makes legal talent succeed or fail, and led him to run a psychometric assessment company working with NFL Combine teams and AmLaw 250 firms. Mark shares his journey into talent assessment and development, what the legal profession still gets wrong about lateral hiring, and why IP attorneys present a unique challenge for any BD leader. Mark and Eugene dive into: His journey from law into psychometric assessment, and what the NFL Combine taught him about predicting talent What the legal profession still gets wrong about lateral hiring Why the true cost of a bad lateral hire runs so much deeper than the recruiting fee Why IP attorneys present a unique challenge for any BD leader What it actually takes…

People in this episode

Host: Eugene McCormick

Guest: Mark Levin

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Marshall Gerstein, NFL, AmLaw 250

Places: Chicago, IP

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