They work in partnership to support firms at a senior strategic level to develop highly effective and integrated business services teams. They particularly focus on the recruitment of senior management professionals, including a broad range of functional directors/chiefs, CEOs, COOs, NEDs and other business services leadership positions. 

Deborah also oversees the Operations, Transformation and Technology practice, specialising in roles including: Legal Service Excellence, Legal Project Management, Process Innovation, Change Management, Programme Management, PMO, Project and Business Analysis.

Debbie’s career has allowed her to develop a distinct set of skills and experience giving her deep market insight of professional service firms. Not only does she understand the internal workings of a firm from her role at Herbert Smith Freehills, where she spent five years in HR management and recruitment, but she also has over 15 years’ experience working as an executive search professional in partnership with firms of varying sizes in a variety of locations nationally and internationally.

In the years Debbie has worked in recruitment, she has seen business services teams develop to the point where the best management professionals are now top law firm decision makers. Debbie is proud to have played a part in this evolution. But the real pleasure comes from knowing she has built the right expertise to guide the very best candidates into the right roles to further drive sustainable growth in the legal sector.  She does not believe that ‘one size fits all’ and has the ability to understand the subtle differences between firms which make them unique.

Debbie has a genuine, down-to-earth approach to recruitment and is passionate about building long term, valued relationships that underpin the most successful long-term recruitment strategies.

In 2019, Deborah was recognised in Timewise Power 50 awards. The Power 50 lists those who manage to achieve everything they do in their senior roles while working part-time or flexibly (Deborah works four days a week). It also reflected Totum’s approach to thinking creatively about using flexibility to support talent attraction and retention both for our clients and for our own team.  

Before Totum, Debbie joined the law firm management division of recruitment firm First Counsel in 2005, where she worked with Tim and Gary. From there, the three of them founded Totum in 2012.