Brittany Lew
Managing Director
Brittany Lew is a legal recruiter at Onward Recruiting, where she partners with attorneys and law firms navigating lateral moves and long-term growth. She works closely with attorneys at pivotal moments in their careers and with firms looking to make thoughtful, durable hires.
Before joining Onward, Brittany spent several years on the internal recruiting side at top AmLaw firms. Working inside law firms gave her firsthand insight into how hiring decisions are made, how firm priorities evolve, and what attorneys often experience (but don’t always say out loud) during a career transition. Today, she brings that perspective to her work externally, helping bridge the gap between candidate and firm expectations.
In addition to her law firm experience, she ran a small business with her husband selling and tuning off-road vehicle suspension components, which gave her firsthand insight into client service, adaptability, and creative problem-solving.
Brittany is known for her personalized, relationship-driven approach and her clear, consistent communication. She takes the time to truly understand an attorney’s goals and experience before presenting opportunities, and she stays closely involved throughout the process, preparing candidates for interviews, advocating on their behalf, and offering candid, grounded guidance when it matters most.
OFF THE CLOCK
A few things that shape me:
I’m drawn to experiences that require self-reliance, patience, and problem-solving, especially when things don’t go according to plan.
Outside of work, I’m usually:
Off-roading (trucks and dirt bikes), camping in remote places, or in the shop building and fixing off-road vehicles with my husband.
A recurring adventure:
I drive the Rubicon Trail every year—12 miles of driving over boulders, granite slabs, and forest terrain near Lake Tahoe that typically takes about a week to complete.
An adventurous streak I’m known for:
The most recent Rubicon trip included losing my power steering, collapsing my rear suspension, and breaking my ignition—meaning I had to hot-wire the car every time I started it. I used a trail welder to weld parts of the suspension back together on the trail and muscled through the rest. I enjoy the kind of problem-solving that comes with being truly remote where you have to figure out how to keep going with the tools and parts you have.
A former chapter of my life that still influences me:
I used to perform regularly as a singer and pianist, from solo coffee shop sets to international choir performances and theater stages, and now mostly play and sing at home for my dogs, but still enjoy it as another form of self-expression.
An experience that changed my perspective:
I lived in South Africa for six months in college while studying linguistics, learning basic Zulu (and later also studied Swahili). I traveled throughout the country and to Mozambique and Botswana. I also volunteered at a rural school, helping students prepare for matriculation and college applications, which deepened my appreciation for language, culture, and connection.
A personal interest I take very seriously:
Reading. Fantasy and sci-fi are my favorites, but I read across genres and while it’s meant to be a relaxing, reality-escaping hobby, I can’t help but turn it into a task list and competition with myself year over year. I'm currently at 40 books a year.
Something just for the challenge:
Learning archery. I currently shoot a recurve bow and set up my own archery course on my property but now I have plans to move to a compound bow and hunt my own Thanksgiving turkey.
A small thing that brings me outsized joy:
My two rescue pit bulls, 65 and 90 pounds of pure joy and laziness. Penny is a silly, chunky baby, and Moose is perpetually unbothered and unimpressed and very handsome.
