The NALSC conference recently held in Philadelphia provided some interesting information and insight into employer/recruiter relations.  The law firm Managing Partner Panel discussed several issues, along with complaints about recruiters that have long lived in the industry.  Recruiters who don’t do their homework, recruiters who present candidates without first introducing themselves, recruiters who do not educate their candidates on a firm before they go in for their first interview, AND recruiters who place a candidate on one day only to raid from their firm the next.  

Their criticism, while valid, was also curious.  They were speaking at a NALSC conference, whose members work to uphold the highest ethical standards in recruiting, yet they were complaining about ‘unethical’ recruiters.  I respectfully suggest that the onus is on law firms to correct the problems they face with recruiters. Protests against questionable recruiter behavior fall flat when law firms use those same recruiters to procure a candidate. They should lose their right to complain as they perpetuate the cycle by working with recruiters whose practices they denounce. The bottom line seems to be the candidate - no matter who presents them. Their position, while somewhat understandable, works against building the standards they claim to seek.
 
It’s like a minister denouncing sin on Sunday morning, but gleefully partaking of it on Saturday night.   These managing partners were preaching to the choir in Philadelphia about the standards they would like recruiters to uphold.  Now if law firms backed up their position by choosing to only work with recruiters who follow the ethical standards they say they want, their complaints about the recruiting industry just might disappear.