2023 Unsung Legal Heroes: Stephanie Unterberger

Listen to this article

Bowman & Brooke LLP

The thing about being an unsung hero in a law firm is that people often don’t recognize the impact you have on the look and feel of the entire firm. Stephanie Unterberger, office administrator at Bowman & Brooke, plays a crucial role in identifying, interviewing and vetting job candidates for a wide range of departments at the firm.

Unterberger not only has a significant impact on those who walk through the door every morning to work at the Minneapolis office, she is the lead for the hiring partners at the firm’s other 11 offices, which span from Los Angeles to Miami.

Her critical role in hiring was even more important in 2021 when the firm had a need to hire more than 100 new employees, in part to service growing client demands and in part to replace staff members who departed. That year called for “recruiting on steroids.”

Unterberger joined Bowman & Brooke in 2020. Prior to that, she worked as a full-time legal recruiter for two years. In her role as office administrator, she onboards new employees. Unterberger also supervises the Minneapolis office paralegals and legal administrative assistants.

When challenged by one of the firm’s clients to increase recruiting efforts at law schools with a high percentage of diverse students, Unterberger doubled the number of schools where the firm participates in on-campus interviews to help achieve that goal.

Unterberger has been a self-starter from day one. Her immediate supervisor was out when she started at the firm in January 2020, but she didn’t wait around for directions.

“I just came in and found who I needed to talk to and knew what I needed to do. I just started to get everything rolling. It’s pretty busy, and that’s been constant, but I love the people.”