Thanh Nguyen

Thanh is a Partner at JM Search and a member of the Firm’s Legal Practice. She specializes in helping companies build high-performing legal departments by placing top legal and compliance talent across a range of industries, serving both private, private equity-backed, and public companies. With over two decades of experience spanning business, law, and compliance, she brings a unique perspective shaped by nearly ten years of legal practice as an attorney, both as in-house and external counsel, and over five years in legal recruiting, focused on in-house legal and compliance roles. Her primary focus is on Chief Legal Officers, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officers, other senior in-house legal roles, and their direct reports.

Prior to JM Search, Thanh spent five years as Managing Director in the In-House Counsel Recruiting Group at Major Lindsey & Africa, where she was responsible for business development and end-to-end search execution, serving clients in public, private, and private equity-backed companies across a range of industries, particularly renewable energy, sports & entertainment, technology, crypto, international trade, consumer products, and healthcare/life sciences. Before her executive search career, Thanh spent a decade practicing as a lawyer, serving as an executive Legal Director at PepsiCo, Inc. She began her legal career as a trial lawyer at Clifford Chance US LLP and Latham & Watkins, representing multinational clients in bet-the-company litigation and in FCPA internal investigations. Before becoming an attorney, Thanh oversaw various teams and departments in sales, shipping and import/export compliance at McMaster-Carr Supply Company, a private American supplier of hardware, tools, raw materials, industrial materials, and maintenance equipment.

Thanh earned her J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School and her B.A. in History cum laude from Northwestern University. She lives in the SF Bay area and enjoys spending time with her three kids, brushing up on her language skills in Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese, going to art museums, dancing (jazz/hip hop), and traveling. Thanh recently completed a year-long round-the-world travel sabbatical with her family, living in 12 different countries throughout Asia, Europe and South America.