At Kane Russell Coleman Logan (KRCL), talent strategy doesn't sit within a large recruiting and professional development department. Recruiting, attorney development, performance management, and the summer associate program are managed by a lean team that prioritizes efficiency without sacrificing a high-touch experience.
As the firm's hiring and development needs grew, leadership faced a choice familiar to many mid-sized law firms: add headcount or invest in technology purpose-built for legal talent teams.
The firm chose the latter.
Christina Wells, SVP of Operations & People at Flo, recently sat down with Recruiting & Talent Development Manager Hannah Maggiore, CHRO Nina Turcios, and COO Chad Collins to discuss how Flo’s ATS and Flo Performance Management have helped KRCL streamline recruiting, strengthen attorney development, and scale talent operations without growing the administrative team.
Q: You oversee recruiting, the summer associate program, and attorney development, which are three functions that are often handled by separate teams at larger firms. How did those processes work before Flo, and what changed after implementation?
Hannah: Before Flo, each part of my role lived in a different place. Candidate tracking was managed through a large spreadsheet, scheduling happened elsewhere, and feedback was collected through email. On the performance side, annual reviews required a lot of manual coordination and follow-up, and there wasn't an intuitive system to support meaningful development conversations.
With Flo, everything is centralized from the moment a candidate enters our pipeline through their first review cycle. Instead of spending time chasing information or piecing together updates from multiple sources, I can focus on evaluating candidates, making thoughtful hiring decisions, and investing more time in the development of our attorneys and business professionals.
Q: Many firms respond to growth by adding headcount to their talent teams. Why did KRCL choose to invest in technology instead?
Nina: We absolutely could have justified adding another person, but realistically that wouldn't have solved the core challenge we were facing.
The volume of recruiting and performance data had outgrown what could effectively be managed through manual processes or disconnected systems. Like many law firms, we operate with a lean administrative team, so we must be intentional about where we invest.
For us, the better decision was to invest in tools that create consistency, capture information in real time, and scale with the firm. One of our biggest challenges was visibility—whether that was understanding recruiting pipelines or tracking performance and workload after people joined the firm.
Now we have a system that centralizes that information and allows it to work for us instead of creating more administrative burden.
Q: You evaluated multiple platforms before choosing Flo, including tools that were not made specifically for law firms. What were you looking for, and why did Flo stand out?
Hannah: Customer service was the deciding factor, full stop.
We hold ourselves to a very high standard when it comes to responsiveness and support, and we only want to partner with companies that operate the same way. Recruiting moves quickly, and we simply cannot afford to wait days for answers to straightforward questions.
From the beginning, the Flo team was incredibly responsive, thoughtful, and easy to work with. Beyond that, they don't just listen to feedback, but they act on it. We've consistently seen suggestions acknowledged and reflected in future product updates, which makes it feel like a true partnership rather than a one-size-fits-all system.
Q: Lateral recruiting is its own unique specialty, with longer cycles, higher stakes, more confidentiality, and every candidate comparing your firm against several others in real time. How has Flo changed the way you run lateral searches at KRCL, from sourcing through close? Where has it given you an edge?
Hannah: Honestly, all of the above.
One of the biggest game changers has been Candidate Review. Lateral recruiting often involves a significant volume of materials and multiple stakeholders. Flo allows us to collect everything in one place and share a single review link, which creates a much more polished and efficient experience internally.
The voting functionality has also made a meaningful difference. We can move quickly and make decisions without relying on excessive email chains or unnecessary meetings while still ensuring everyone's perspective is heard and considered.
Flo also keeps us organized across recruiting partners. We no longer worry about duplicate submissions or dig through inboxes to determine who submitted a candidate first. Everything is tracked clearly and in real time.
Overall, Flo has helped us move faster, stay aligned, and deliver a more professional experience to both candidates and recruiting partners.
Q: The summer associate program is one of the most important talent pipelines for any law firm. How has Flo changed the way you manage it from assignment tracking to feedback collection to evaluating who gets an offer? Is there a moment or decision this past summer where having Flo changed the outcome?
Hannah: Flo has fundamentally changed how we run our summer program, particularly when it comes to visibility, organization, and scalability.
This was the first year we introduced city-specific applications for the program. Flo allowed us to expand our reach while still supporting our traditional OCI efforts and law school relationships.
As a result, we were able to manage more than 2,500 applications for our 2026 Summer Associate class. To put that in perspective, we had 13 total positions available, and four of those were filled by returning summer associates, leaving only nine open spots.
Managing that volume with a lean team simply would not have been feasible without Flo. It has allowed us to carefully review every application, communicate with candidates in a timely manner, and stay organized around exactly what we were looking for.
The Work Allocation platform has also transformed how we manage assignments and feedback. We now have a much clearer picture of what our summer associates are working on and how they're progressing throughout the program. For the summer associates themselves, it's become an easy way to manage assignments, track workload, and maintain a record of their work over the course of the summer.
Q: As CHRO, your portfolio runs from recruiting to benefits to payroll to development, including every facet of how KRCL takes care of its people. Where does talent development sit in that strategic picture, and why was investing in the right performance management platform a priority?
Nina: Talent development sits at the center of everything we do.
At the end of the day, our ability to serve clients depends entirely on the strength and growth of our people. If we're not continuously developing our attorneys and business professionals, we're not evolving as a firm.
From a strategic standpoint, development supports both immediate performance and long-term succession planning. We wanted a more structured and transparent way to connect feedback, productivity, and growth.
The goal wasn't simply to collect more data. It was to create visibility for both leadership and individuals, so development feels intentional, measurable, and aligned with firm goals.
Q: Developing attorneys is harder to measure than recruiting them. How is Flo helping you build, track, and prove out a real development program for associates? How are you using performance review data to build development initiatives across the firm?
Hannah: One of the things we're most intentional about is not being a firm where reviews are completed once a year and then forgotten.
At its core, Flo Performance Management has allowed us to create more consistent touchpoints throughout the year and has given us a much better interface for performance reviews. That alone has made a significant difference.
Our goal is to build and support exceptional people and high-performing teams at KRCL, and that requires ongoing, meaningful development. Flo enables us to track feedback in a way that drives follow-up, not just documentation.
What we have seen is that our associates tend to be more advanced in their development, professionally, personally, and from a business perspective, than many of their peers. From day one, they are working on complex cases and transactions that go well beyond what their J.D. year might suggest. Our approach to development mirrors that expectation. If they are performing at a high level, they should be developed at a high level as well.
Flo Performance Management gives us the structure and visibility to support that. We can identify patterns in performance, reinforce strengths, and proactively address development areas across the firm, rather than reacting after the fact. It allows us to be more thoughtful and more strategic in how we invest in our people.
Q: As COO, you're not in the weeds of talent development day to day, but you greenlit the investment in Flo based on Nina and Hannah's recommendation. From your seat, what made this the right kind of bet for a firm like KRCL? What would you tell your industry counterparts?
Chad: From my perspective, this was the right investment because it strengthens both the experience and the infrastructure around our recruiting and talent processes. Flo stood out in a few key areas: strong customer service, meaningful support for both our team and applicants, and the ability to customize workflows to fit how we operate as a firm.
Equally important was how well it integrates with our broader systems. We were not looking to add another disconnected tool. We needed something that would enhance the overall user experience, reduce friction, and create a more seamless process from candidate intake through development.
The platform also gives us better reporting and visibility, which is critical from a compliance and risk management standpoint. Having centralized data and consistent processes allows us to operate with greater rigor while still maintaining flexibility.
Ultimately, this is about enabling our team to deliver a high level of service. For my counterparts, I would say this: invest in solutions that support your people, improve the experience for candidates, and give you the data and structure to operate efficiently and consistently – this is what Flo offers.
Conclusion
For KRCL, Flo has become more than a recruiting and performance management platform; it has become a true partner for a lean team responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining top legal talent.
From streamlining lateral hiring to creating more meaningful development conversations and processes to managing more than thousands of summer associate applications, Flo has helped the firm scale its talent operations without adding administrative complexity. Most importantly, it has given the firm the visibility, structure, and flexibility needed to support both its people and its long-term growth strategy.
