Christina Wells, SVP, Operations & People at Flo Recruit, sat down with Anel Gamez, Recruiting Coordinator at McKool Smith, to discuss how Flo Recruit has dramatically elevated their student and lateral recruiting program.
McKool Smith is a nationally recognized trial firm known for its excellence in high-stakes intellectual property and commercial litigation. With offices across the country, McKool Smith’s recruiting strategy is critical to ensuring they recruit top-tier talent to continue their legacy of success.
Q: What is your role at McKool Smith?
Anel Gamez: I’m the Recruiting Coordinator at McKool Smith, where I manage lateral associate recruiting across six offices and oversee our summer associate program. My role requires a lot of strategic work to ensure we bring in the best talent for both our student and lateral hiring needs.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your summer program and how you typically fill your classes.
Anel Gamez: We typically bring in anywhere from 20 to 29 summer associates per year, with a strong emphasis on our Texas and New York City offices. Our hiring approach is strategic—we open our 1L recruiting season in November and focus on recruiting 2Ls through OCI, especially from law schools with strong IP litigation programs.
Before partnering with Flo Recruit, our outreach was more limited, but now we’re getting in front of students much earlier. Since implementing Flo Forward, we’ve tripled our candidate volume while also improving on the quality of the candidates. The broader reach has allowed us to target middle-tier schools while still honing in on the specialized technical backgrounds we need for our firm’s focus on IP litigation.
Q: You also use Flo Recruit Applicant Tracking for lateral hires. How do you seamlessly house both student and lateral searches in one system?
Anel Gamez: To me, Flo Recruit is a one-stop shop. Before, student and lateral recruiting were managed in entirely different places, which created inefficiencies. Now, I can work within one platform while customizing each role’s process to our exact needs.
I track candidates, schedule interviews, and collect feedback all in one system—without constantly toggling between emails, spreadsheets, outdated legacy systems, and my Outlook calendar. Since I don’t have an assistant, this has been a game-changer for staying organized and keeping things running smoothly.
Q: Since signing on with Flo Recruit, how has your student candidate pool evolved?
Anel Gamez: The biggest change has been our ability to broaden our scope while still maintaining the technical background requirements we need. We’re now reaching a larger pool of students from schools that we wouldn’t have been able to connect with using our old, manual processes. Our visibility has essentially doubled—not just for students but also with an eye towards future laterals. I know I’ll be seeing some of these students again in three years as lateral candidates, so this expanded reach is already laying the groundwork for our future hiring.
Q: McKool Smith’s summer associate jobs are always posted on the candidate platform, Forward. Have you noticed any differences in your pipeline since this resource became available to students?
Anel Gamez: Absolutely. Having our jobs consistently posted on Forward has made a big impact. It’s helped us reach more students earlier in the process and keep them engaged, which ultimately improves our pipeline for both summer associates and future lateral hires.
Q: As a lean recruiting team, how does Flo Recruit help you manage everything?
Anel Gamez: Before Flo Recruit, I was tracking everything across multiple spreadsheets, emails, and different systems—it was overwhelming. Now, everything is housed in one place, which has significantly reduced my administrative workload. Flo Recruit does the heavy lifting, from emailing candidates to scheduling interviews to collecting feedback.
Attorneys immediately noticed how easy Flo Recruit is to use. They love that it integrates seamlessly with their Outlook calendars and that all the interview materials they need are at their fingertips. Before, attorneys were scrambling to find materials before interviews. Now, they’re prepared and can submit feedback effortlessly afterward. This has saved me so much time—no more chasing down attorneys or manually preparing materials.
Q: What advice would you give to another firm recruiter who is a team of one or part of a small, lean team responsible for everything from student to lateral recruiting?
Anel Gamez: Flo Recruit is a huge time saver. In a constantly changing market with shifting timelines, every second counts. Flo Recruit has eliminated so much manual tracking and administrative busywork, allowing me to focus on the bigger picture. Being able to tailor both the lateral and the summer recruiting processes exactly how our firm wants them has been a massive improvement.
I save about two hours a day using Flo Recruit compared to my old legacy systems. For anyone managing recruiting solo or with a small team, it’s an absolute game-changer.
Flo Recruit has helped McKool Smith transform its recruiting process, improving efficiency, candidate quality, and outreach. If you're interested in learning how Flo Recruit can enhance your firm's recruiting efforts, visit www.florecruit.com. To see it in action, request a demo today at https://start.florecruit.com/request-demo.
