Ask any law firm about their due diligence when it comes to hiring talent and they will rattle off a list of lofty standards. Ask any legal recruiter about firms and those so-called standards and you’ll most likely get a snigger and an eye-roll.
It’s a tale as old as time. Law firms mistakenly hire troublemakers and shady personalities.
Yesterday, I wrote a painful news story about Deacons’ former partner and head of tax, Stefano Mariani, being accused in court of sexual harassment. After Deacons apparently conducted an internal investigation, Mariani was told to resign in March. He was asked to go on a three-month gardening leave and told not to visit the premises. If the allegations brought forward by his young former colleague are true, that barely amounts to a slap on the wrist if you ask me.
But what’s more alarming was that he was told to resign by Deacons in March and landed a position at Baker McKenzie in June. Talk about a bounce back.
I asked Baker about the due diligence that was conducted in hiring Mariani and was told they couldn’t comment because it’s an ongoing court case. However, a source told me that the firm had contacted Deacons about Mariani before officially hiring him and Deacons never said anything about the circumstances of his exit or the internal investigation. I reached out to Deacons twice and received no response.
I can almost hear firms protesting. “Well, due diligence is only as good as the information secured!” they’ll say. But what if the firm the candidate is coming from wants them out? It’s surely unethical to omit crucial information about candidates (particularly in Mariani’s case if the allegations are true). But is it unheard of? Hardly.
Just yesterday I was at lunch with a source, and he recounted a story that was told to him by a partner at an international firm...