Jane Pollard
Principal
Jane is a founder and the managing principal of Momentum Legal Staffing and its sister company, Momentum Search Partners, which focuses on permanent attorney placements and lateral partners. She has eighteen years of legal recruiting experience, focusing on attorney searches for both law firms and in-house legal departments in Texas. She has helped top companies in many industries build their in-house legal team, including companies in the financial services, healthcare, energy, renewable energy, biotech, manufacturing, retail, and technology sectors.
Jane obtained her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas, where she was also an associate editor of the Texas Law Review. Prior to recruiting, she was an oil and gas litigation associate with a large Dallas-based firm. She obtained her undergraduate degree with high honors in Accounting from the University of Arkansas.
Jane lives in Austin and has been a speaker on legal hiring/attorney placement and career development and has served on various boards of directors in the Austin community. She is also on the national Board of Directors for NALSC, the professional association for legal search consultants. She spends her free time cycling, swimming, traveling, and gardening.
Jennifer Nelson
Principal
Jennifer is a founder and principal of Momentum Legal Staffing and its sister company, Momentum Search Partners. She is a native Texan and a third generation graduate from The University of Texas. Prior to recruiting, Jennifer worked for a Fortune 100 company to open their Austin office and develop a business base, serving law firms and large in-house legal departments with innovative facilities management solutions. She thus has many years’ experience in the Texas legal industry. She has been around lawyers her entire life and is part of a family filled with lawyers (husband, brother, uncles, cousins). Jennifer is proud to be a part of the Momentum recruiting team and currently focuses on permanent and temporary attorney placements, including lateral partners with business for law firms.
Jennifer lives in Austin with her husband and two teenage sons. She spends many hours cheering on her sons in their sports endeavors and appreciates all the outdoor amenities that Austin offers.
Allison McCowan
Search Director
Allison comes to Momentum with fifteen years of legal recruiting experience in Austin. Allison is passionate about her work and prides herself on offering timely and exceptional service to clients and candidates alike. She places attorneys, paralegals, and administrative staff in both Austin law firms and in corporate legal departments on a temporary, temp to perm, and direct hire basis. In addition, Allison has extensive experience staffing document reviews on both a national and local level and with both English speakers and those fluent in foreign languages.
Allison and her family recently relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina due to her husband’s career, so she will be leading Momentum’s effort to expand into the Charlotte market. However, Allison will also continue her placement work in Austin and travel to Austin on a regular basis. She will also remain active in all of the Austin legal networking and professional groups she has always enjoyed, such as Women of Wind Energy, Capital Area Paralegals Association, and the Austin Legal Professionals Association.
In her spare time Allison is a road warrior who loves to travel, cook and spend quality time with friends and family. She is also active in her two young children’s schools and sports activities.
Mary Alice Kuykendall
Search Director
A native Austinite, Mary Alice has two decades of experience in the legal placement industry. After attending the University of Texas, Mary Alice began her career as the Recruiting Coordinator of a large Texas law firm. Since 1996 she has sourced, recruited, and marketed candidates to law firms and corporations, managed existing clients, and developed new business. She has experience recruiting and placing legal secretaries, paralegals, compliance professionals, office administrators, contract administrators and attorneys.
In addition, Mary Alice has experience staffing large document review projects, including a 100 lawyer project for an international company that lasted over four years. Mary Alice has been an active member of the Capital Area Paralegals Association, the Austin Legal Professionals Association, and the Austin chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators.
An empty nester with two daughters in college, Mary Alice has enjoyed volunteering for Austin Pet Alive, exploring the Texas Hill Country and wandering nearby hiking trails.
Lisa Buss
Recruiter
Lisa is a native Texan with over twenty years of legal support experience. At Momentum, Lisa works closely with candidates focusing on screening, sourcing, interviewing, and reference checking while also assisting our Search Directors with all other needs for a successful placement. Recruiting has always been her passion and her connection with candidates is what makes her successful. She has placed paralegals, legal secretaries, firm administrators, billing clerks, technical support, and other staff. Prior to joining Momentum, Lisa worked as a paralegal, client services director, inside and outside recruiter, and legal administrator in both Houston and Austin. Having worn many hats, she understands what it takes to run a successful and happy workplace.
Lisa and her husband have an adult son and a daughter in high school. She enjoys volunteering on various fundraising committees and at PAWS Shelter of Central Texas. When outside of the office, you can find her experimenting in the kitchen, cheering on the Longhorns, boating Lake Travis, and running around Lady Bird Lake.
Anje Potgieter
Lead Database Administrator
Anje is the lead database administrator for Momentum and has been providing other administrative support for our recruiters for the past two years while also studying at the University of Texas at Austin. She is pursuing a major in Actuarial Science, a minor in Business, and certificate in Risk Management, with plans to attend Law School after completed her college degree. In her time at Momentum Legal, she has developed her professional and task management skills by completing various daily and on-going administrative tasks, and recently helped direct the company’s data migration process from one database to a new and improved one.
After moving to the United States from South Africa, Anje spent her formative years in Houston, enjoying running in the greenbelts and exploring new restaurants. While living in Austin for college, she has continued to love the outdoors and frequently goes to Zilker Park, Town Lake Trail, and Barton Springs. While exploring all the culinary experiences Austin has to offer, she felt inspired to turn her love of baking into a profitable side hobby. She has created countless homemade recipes and sells baked goods such as birthday cakes and cookies to friends in the Austin area. Anje speaks Afrikaans and can have conversations in Spanish. Her goal is to learn more languages while traveling the world someday.
anje@momentumlegal.com
832-588-8618