Jen Cafferty Patton, chief legal talent officer at Foley & Lardner.

The list of Am Law 100 firms with C-suite positions dedicated to managing talent continues to grow, with Foley & Lardner announcing the hire Tuesday of former Vinson & Elkins professional development director Jennifer Cafferty Patton as its first chief legal talent officer.

Patton, who practiced with Baker Botts at the start of her legal career, spent nearly six years at Vinson & Elkins, previously overseeing the firm's global lateral recruitment. She will work out of the Houston office of the Milwaukee-based firm.

Patton first took on administrative responsibilities when she was working as the general counsel for the Supreme Court of Texas, and she decided that was the direction she wanted to take her career.

"Even as a lawyer, I was always drawn to helping improve the attorney experience," she said. 

At Foley & Lardner, Patton will oversee the firm's attorney recruiting, professional development, diversity and inclusion and its alumni outreach.

She is starting out her time at the firm meeting attorneys and staff to determine priorities, but she already intends to hire an attorney career coach and to build out a coaching program, along with expanding professional development opportunities.

"Our newly created CLTO role is about recognizing a simple and powerful fact—that our firm's greatest assets and strengths lie in our people," said Jay Rothman, the firm's chairman and CEO, in a statement. "By creating this position, and appointing Jen to fill it, we're strategically focusing on attracting the right talent, while simultaneously providing attorneys and staff with successful and professionally satisfying careers."

Patton's responsibilities will focus solely on the firm's attorneys, unlike some other firms that have recently added upper-level talent management roles. But she said she will be working collaboratively on staff professional development with Foley's chief human resource officer, who oversees the staff side.

In August, Crowell & Moring named its first chief talent and inclusion officer, a position that adds responsibility for increasing diversity to recruiting and professional development. Other firms to add chief talent officer roles in recent years include Perkins Coie, Winston & Strawn, Dechert and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

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