Top recruitment consultant blows the whistle on shabby City firms
09 October 2009
A recruiter at one of the leading consultancies in the City has confirmed to RollOnFriday that dozens of his clients blatantly discriminate against redundant lawyers.

The recruiter, who asked to remain anonymous, accepted that redundant lawyers were being discriminated against and agreed that this was "entirely inappropriate". But he stressed that it was nothing to do with the consultants, who were being unfairly cast as the villains. He said that there was nothing he could do when his clients telephoned him and expressly stated that they would not look at any redundant lawyers.

A recruitment consultant yesterday

There are some honourable exceptions. The recruiter said that he had recently placed redundant candidates at Herbert Smith, Eversheds, Osborne Clarke and KPMG. But many top 20 and US firms had told him that they would simply not interview candidates who had lost their jobs.

Not only is this "entirely inappropriate", it's also entirely stupid given all the good lawyers in the market who've just found themselves in the wrong department at the wrong firm at the wrong time.