Legal industry headhunters are feeling the squeeze as their law firm clients increasingly invest in internal recruitment resources, creating C-suite talent management positions and becoming more liberal with referral bonuses.

That was part of legal recruiter Sharon Mahn's rationale for merging her New York City-based search company into ZRG Partners, a global talent advisory firm with private equity backing, where she assumed the newly-minted managing director position of head of law firm strategy.