BIO
Maricar Tinio, Esq. – Founder, JMB Legal Search, LLC
Maricar (Mari) Tinio is the founder of JMB Legal Search, headquartered in Chicago. A former practicing attorney, Maricar has dedicated her entire career to legal services, specializing in legal recruiting. She holds a J.D. and undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and has over 15 years of experience, including work in e-discovery and legal technology, such as artificial intelligence. Maricar recruits nationally, placing attorneys and paralegals in large and mid-sized markets across the country.
Her expertise spans recruiting Partners, Groups, Associates, and support staff, as well as facilitating law firm mergers. Maricar has significant experience in-house, successfully recruiting General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and other key roles within the highly regulated industries of health sciences and financial services. She has also placed lawyers in JD-preferred positions.
Maricar is a member of the Legal Mentor Network (https://www.legalmentornetwork.org/), where she advises junior lawyers on navigating their careers and shares insights she wishes she had known during her time as a law student and early in her legal career. She served as Secretary with the Asian American Bar Association of Chicago (AABA-Chicago) and is a founding member of both the National Filipino American Law Association (NFALA) and the Filipino American Lawyers Association of Chicago (FALA-Chicago). She is a longtime member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). Maricar also spearheaded the Minority Bar CLE Conference in Chicago, which is now in its second decade of existence. She has coordinated and spoken at numerous CLE and panel presentations on diversity recruiting, in-house counsel relations with their outside law firms and alternative legal careers.
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Maricar takes a consultative and straightforward approach, partnering with law firms and organizations to help them achieve their strategic goals through talent acquisition. She also works closely with attorneys and paralegals to understand their unique career objectives, offering tailored career guidance to ensure their next move aligns with their long-term professional goals. By focusing on both the needs of hiring managers and legal professionals, she helps ensure a smooth onboarding process that positions attorneys and paralegals for success.
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Over 90% of Maricar’s placements have remained with their organizations long-term, with many initially placed as associates who later advance to partner. Clients frequently return to her as their firms grow and expand into new specialties and markets, confident in our ability to identify exceptional talent that aligns with their evolving needs.
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Outside of legal recruiting, Maricar enjoys domestic and international travel, working out, cooking and exploring the restaurant scene in Chicago.