TNX Advisory, part of the Tenex group
Growth strategy and corporate finance for law firms.
We help law-firm leadership decide how to grow. We compare building, hiring, combining, acquiring, raising capital and holding on the same terms, recommend one, and check the forecast against results afterwards.
- Based in
- London
- Market report
- 12 January 2027
- Partner Market Briefings
- From January
- Engagements begin
- April 2027
What we do
Most growth decisions come down to six options.
Growth has become a capital-allocation decision, made under pressure on margins from AI and with partner profit at stake. Most advice looks at one or two routes. We price all six on your own numbers so the board can compare them properly.
How we work
Every option is measured the same way.
For each option we model the change in profit per equity partner, peak cash, risk-adjusted value and payback, under a base case, a downside and an AI stress case. Four tests then decide what can be recommended at all.
| Option | Change in PEP, year 2 | Peak cash | Risk-adjusted NPV | Payback | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build | +2.1% | £4m | £11m | 3.5 years | Passed |
| Hire | +4.8% | £9m | £14m | 2.8 years | Passed |
| Combine | +8.9% | £22m | £31m | 2.1 years | Failed on culture |
| Acquire (recommended) | +6.2% | £12m | £19m | 2.4 years | Passed |
| Raise | +3.7% | n/a | £8m | n/a | Control to resolve |
| Hold | 0.0% | £0 | Baseline | n/a | n/a |
Culture
Will the partnership still recognise itself? We test this in non-attributed partner interviews.
Conflicts
Which clients could be lost or put at risk, priced into the numbers rather than noted in passing.
Control
Who decides after the deal: votes, vetoes and the terms of any outside capital.
Reversibility
If it goes wrong, how far back the firm can get, at what cost and how quickly.
Every option priced
All six routes on one page, on your figures, so the board is choosing between real alternatives.
A forecast we sign
A 24-month forecast of revenue, profit per partner and the few measures that matter for the recommendation, kept on the record.
Reviewed afterwards
Written reviews at 6, 12 and 24 months are included in the fee. The original forecast sits beside the actuals, including where we were wrong.
Sometimes the right answer is not to do a deal at all. Our fee is the same either way, which is why the advice can be trusted.
Services
Fixed scope, fixed fee, led by a founding partner.
Most firms start with a Partner Market Briefing, which we offer from January at no fee. We are taking bookings now for engagements that begin in April 2027.
Partner Market BriefingNo fee
Forty-five minutes on what the partner market is doing around your firm: who moved, from where, at what cost, and which of your practices are exposed. Built on TNX Market Intelligence.
45 minutesLateral Cohort Review
Did the partners you hired in the last three years bring what they promised? Book claimed against billed against retained, by cohort, set against what was paid.
3 to 4 weeksPractice and Office Launch Plan
Should you open this practice or this city, and how? The business case, a hiring map of target profiles, the P&L and the break-even month.
4 to 6 weeksThe Growth Underwrite
All six options priced on one page, a 24-month forecast on the record, and written reviews at months 6, 12 and 24.
8 weeksStrategic Growth Office
A quarterly board pack, live tracking of every lateral cohort, combination screening and partner-market alerts between meetings.
Annual retainer50% of an entry product's fee is credited against a larger TNX Advisory engagement signed within six months.
If a merger partner or an investor has approached you, we also run a two-week “Should we take the meeting?” review, Combination Readiness, and Capital and Investor Readiness.
The Growth Underwrite in eight weeks
Three checkpoints with your board sponsor, so nothing in the final paper is a surprise.
- Week 1
Baseline
Built from your data room, with corrections invited.
- Week 3
Your firm in numbers
First checkpoint: we agree the baseline and the measures.
- Week 4
The options
Second checkpoint: which options pass the four tests, and why.
- Week 6
Draft recommendation
Third checkpoint: a pre-read for the board sponsor.
- Week 8
Board decision
The recommendation, the forecast and the baseline we will measure against.
What we need from you: three years of accounts, anonymised partner points, top-client revenue and the decision provisions of the partnership deed; eight to twelve non-attributed partner interviews; a board sponsor; and three 60-minute checkpoints.
Independence and discretion
Our advice never depends on whether you hire through Tenex.
These six rules are written into every engagement letter.
Fixed fees, never tied to hires
“Don't hire” and “hold” are valid answers, and they are paid the same as any other.
You choose who recruits
If the answer is to hire, use any recruiter you like. Our fees are never credited against Tenex Search fees or any transaction.
Your partners are off-limits
While we advise you, and for 12 months after, Tenex Search will not approach your partners in the practices in scope without your consent.
Your data stays in the engagement
Client material lives only in a dedicated engagement workspace and never leaves it, including into Tenex Search's records. Interview notes never enter an AI tool, and named partners sign everything.
No rival conflicts
We never advise two direct rivals on the same question at the same time, and we will tell you if that rule is ever in play.
Public figures only
Our market views use public data and Tenex's own knowledge of the partner market. We never use or seek another client's confidential information.
The Tenex group
Built on years of moving partners between leading firms.
Tenex Search has spent years moving partners and teams between the world's leading law firms. TNX Advisory uses that view of the market to help leadership teams make board-level decisions.
Partner and team moves for the world's leading law firms, across London, New York, Washington D.C., California, Germany, Brussels and Paris.
Growth strategy and corporate finance for law-firm leadership, with every option priced and the forecast checked against results afterwards.
The evidence
TNX Market Intelligence
built on Tenex data
Who moved, where, with what book, and whether they stayed, tracked move by move since 2022 across London, New York, Washington D.C., California, Germany, Brussels and Paris. Published only as aggregates.
Recent Tenex Search work
- Private Equity team of sixteenUS firm → US firm · Frankfurt
- Four-partner Capital Solutions teamUS firm → global firm · New York
- Two Antitrust partnersUS firm → US firm · Washington D.C.
- Two Life Sciences partnersUS firm → US firm · Palo Alto
- Two Capital Solutions partnersUS firm → global firm · London
Plus office openings in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Dallas. Moves announced in 2026; names are not published.
Free report, published 12 January 2027
The Global Partner Market Report 2026
Who moved between January and November 2026 across London, New York, Washington D.C., California, Germany, Brussels and Paris, which firms are building, and how many earlier moves were still in place two years on. Ten pages, drawn from TNX Market Intelligence and signed by the founders.
Global Partner Market Report 2026
Moves, builders and retention
Leadership
Founded by three partners of Tenex Search.
Mahmoud Awad
Co-founder
Founder and Managing Partner of Tenex Search. Over the past decade Mahmoud has led more than 100 partner and team moves in private equity, M&A, finance, restructuring and regulatory practices, advising leadership teams on hiring decisions.
Max Swycher
Co-founder
Partner at Tenex Search in London and New York, placing partners and teams into international law firms across private equity, finance, real estate, energy and infrastructure. Max worked in investment banking and private equity before Tenex.
Dylan Teasdale
Co-founder
A founding Partner of Tenex Search. Dylan places partners and teams at leading US and Magic Circle firms in the US, London, Germany and Brussels, and has led strategic hiring projects behind the expansion of tier 1 firms.
Contact
Request a Partner Market Briefing
A 45-minute conversation with the founders, at no fee and in strict confidence. We bring what the partner market is doing around your firm and a first view of your options. You decide afterwards whether a full engagement is worthwhile.