Don’t let David Tanenbaum’s résumé full of heavy hitters — Weil, Proskauer, Cadwalader, Merrill Lynch, Citi and Bloomberg Law — fool you. At his core, David is a salt-of-the-earth guy from New Jersey who just happens to be great at closing deals; he’s just swapped term sheets for deal sheets.
David’s legal career began as an M&A attorney, working on public and PE transactions with OG private equity players like Hicks Muse and Bear Stearns Merchant Bank. His interest in the finance side of the deals led him to pursue an MBA and into the world of investment banking before returning to the legal industry — this time to Bloomberg Law, where he helped build early machine-learning tools for corporate lawyers.
Eventually, David stepped into the family garment business — a world he’d first glimpsed as a kid tagging along on sourcing trips across Asia and Eastern Europe. He and his wife built their own apparel agency from the ground up, moving over $20M in annual volume. But what he loved most wasn’t the product (he’ll be the first to admit he’s not a fashion guy). It was the matchmaking: connecting overseas vendors with U.S. retailers, understanding what each side needed, and brokering the win.
So, recruiting? It was the natural next chapter. These days, David channels all that commercial instinct, transactional legal knowledge, and empathy from his time in BigLaw into helping lawyers make smart, high-impact moves. “In retrospect,” he says, “I really could have used a great legal recruiter to walk me through more strategic options.”
David lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, their teacup Chihuahua Bella, and a busy live music schedule (true to his Jersey roots, he will never miss a Springsteen concert). If you’re looking to talk self-driving cars, robotics, or healthtech, he will happily tell you how Pittsburgh has quietly become a hotspot for those industries. His campaign for the major tech firms to open Steel City offices has thus far been unsuccessful, but he remains hopeful.
"A Few Good Men ('May it please the court, is there a question anywhere in our future?')"
"I loved my first job as a camp junior counselor (I was about 15), which involved teaching, coaching, and encouraging my campers (20 or so 8-year-olds) to play various sports, learn arts & crafts, and not fight over the red ice pops (there were only so many before someone got the purple and orange ones). I even taught one of my campers how to swim – earning me a solid tip from his parents at the end of the summer."
"Owl Trainer at Duolingo."