People insights create major impact for AmLaw 100 firm
How Chambers Talent Intelligence supports evidence-based people strategy.
Annette Sheridan has extensive people experience across student recruitment, learning and development, benefits, reward, and engagement. In her former role as Chief People Officer at an AmLaw 100 firm, she leveraged Chambers Talent Intelligence, a market intelligence tool focused on helping law firms elevate their talent strategy.
Moving beyond traditional engagement surveys
Annette had previously led internal engagement surveys but found them resource-intensive and time-consuming to deliver. Chambers Talent Intelligence offered an appealing alternative: a robust methodology combined with a straightforward process that generated high-quality, meaningful employee engagement data with significantly less internal effort.
A further advantage was the ability to select bespoke peer benchmarks. This flexibility enabled the firm to assess its position against key competitors, providing compelling insight into relative strengths and opportunity areas.
“The flexibility to choose who we benchmark against has been very helpful. It’s enabled us to think more deliberately about where we want to sit and how we want to position ourselves in the market.”
Annette Sheridan, Chief People Officer, AmLaw 100 firm
Moving from instinct to evidence‑based action
Talent Intelligence enabled Annette’s former firm to move from instinct to evidence-based action. The data validated existing hypotheses around engagement challenges, making it easier to engage teams in constructive conversations.
Rather than starting discussions with a blank sheet of paper, the People team could approach groups with a clear, data-backed view of the issue and an initial framework for addressing it.
“The ability to take a gut feel and put data behind it, is incredibly useful with lawyers, because it makes the issue harder to ignore”
Annette Sheridan, Chief People Officer, AmLaw 100 firm
Using insight to refine people priorities
The depth and breadth of the data enabled the HR team to analyze engagement from multiple perspectives and deep dive into specific focus areas. Talent Intelligence allowed teams to view insights at firm level or drill down into individual offices and practice groups, making it easier to understand cultural dynamics across the organization.
Access to this data supported more productive conversations with senior leadership, by clearly highlighting current position and priority opportunity areas. Crucially, the insights also provided a way to reassess priorities year on year, helping refine the overall people strategy by focusing effort on the areas where the firm could have the greatest impact.
“It allows us to reassess priorities year on year and helps the HR team target efforts more effectively, identifying the highest opportunity areas rather than trying to tackle a long list of initiatives.”
Annette Sheridan, Chief People Officer, AmLaw 100 firm
Support that feels like a partnership
Beyond the insights themselves, Sheridan emphasized the value she placed on the partnership with the Chambers team. Support extended further than delivering the results, with the team always available to help throughout the year and answer any questions.
The user-friendly nature of Talent Intelligence also played an important role, enabling the team to easily absorb and interpret information. Insights were clearly presented and framed in a constructive way, focusing on opportunities rather than challenges. This combination of intuitive data and ongoing, client-focused support ensured the firm was able to unlock meaningful value from the insights.
“The Chambers team was incredibly strong and very client focused. It felt much more like a partnership than a transactional relationship, and that’s something I really appreciated.”
Annette Sheridan, Chief People Officer, AmLaw 100 firm
Want to know what's really motivating the next generation of associates?
Read the Chambers 2026 report on the state of the US talent market.