Join Us
Are you an established recruiter looking to join a prestigious business that has enjoyed impressive growth for many years? Or a lawyer seeking to leave practice but keen to stay within the legal sector in a quality-driven and fast-paced environment?
Deacon offers a great platform, a friendly non-hierarchical culture, and a transparent and market-leading commission structure. Unlike many recruitment businesses, we are not KPI-driven and have remained independent. All our senior team are engaged in fee-earning. We have one of the most respected brands in the legal recruitment market, and there are currently opportunities across our partner and associate businesses. We operate as an Employee Ownership Trust, meaning that we are effectively owned by our employees, which provides them with certainty and clarity over the long term and enables us to retain our independence, unique culture, and values.
We are part of one of the largest independent companies in the global legal recruitment sector, with a shared management team, common vision and values. We are therefore able to provide superb international and cross-referral opportunities for our consultants. Deacon focuses on placing lawyers in London, but our wider business covers international strategic recruitment (mergers, office openings and build-outs), associate moves around the globe, in-house, and interim. All our management team transact, leading by example.
For a confidential chat, please contact Paul Deacon or Dan Wilkins who would love to tell you more about why Deacon is such a compelling business to join.
Case Studies
As a people business, our people are vital to us. We wanted to share some of the stories of our consultants and why they chose to work in legal recruitment at Deacon.
Gita Odedra
Director
Gita Odedra joined in 2018 and is an experienced partner recruiter focusing on US and international firms in London.
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Like many of our consultants, Gita has a background in law. She graduated with a law degree then completed the LPC, before gaining experience as a litigation assistant in two major City firms. Working on complex High Court litigations gave her a great deal of client contact which she enjoyed, but she found that she did not really enjoy the actual application of law. It was then that she started to think of other ways in which she could use her legal experience – such as in public relations or marketing. Seeking guidance from a well-known national legal sector recruiter, she was then called back in to ask if she was interested in joining them. She spent the next eight years there, initially recruiting for in-house lawyers in banking and finance. “I always really liked the sales and marketing aspect of being in a law firm so I found that recruiting came naturally to me.”
In 2010 she joined the boutique legal recruiter Abrahams Russell, which became part of Fox Rodney following a merger in 2013, and began recruiting partners for international and US law firms.
“I found that my law firm experience—how they function, the different personalities, and the clear need to provide clients with a service in order to earn money—was really helpful in building up a rapport with partners looking to move firms. I’ve always been able to establish relationships quickly, assessing what candidates want and directing them to the right firm for them in terms of their personality and practice area.”
Ultimately she feels the key to a successful placement is working with her partner candidates in the way that they work with their clients – know the practice area well, provide a bespoke service, and work in partnership with them. “They can tell if you’re bluffing or don’t have the experience you claim. It’s a really important part of building a relationship of mutual trust.”
In 2018 she was introduced to Paul Deacon by a former colleague and they hit it off immediately. “Deacon was a known brand and I found Paul to be honest and likeable. They had a proven track record and long-term, well-established relationships with law firms with unrivalled access to senior management of many key firms, which really helps to gain access for our partner candidates.”
Gita was attracted to the mature, entrepreneurial culture at Deacon and the chance to run her own desk. It also helped that she had worked with Deacon’s Dan Wilkins before. “Unlike many recruiters, at Deacon there is no ownership over law firm relationships, which enables everyone to work collaboratively and means that partners get the full range of options on the market. We are candidate-driven but still invest significant time in getting to know firms and their practices so we can leverage these relationships for the benefit of our partner contacts.”
When working with partner candidates, Gita becomes a trusted adviser to them. “It’s an equal relationship rather than a supplier-customer relationship. Personal contact is so important and I found I have stayed in touch with partners after the hire is completed and we become friends.”
Gita’s past partner candidates agree. One said: “I thought Gita was an excellent recruiter. She has a good handle on the market without being patronising or indiscreet. She was helpful at critical points – for instance she had some minor comments on my business plan and just made the tweaks herself which kept up momentum on the process. She is very likeable and, most importantly, I felt I could trust her. I would definitely recommend her.”
Gideon Krotosky
Director
Gideon Krotosky has been with Deacon since 2009 – most of his legal recruitment career. He spends around 80% of time recruiting associates for UK, US and international law firms in London, with the remaining 20% spent recruiting partners.
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Gideon had originally planned to work in finance. “I studied economics and accountancy at university, but quickly realised that I didn’t want to be an accountant. Whilst I considered other routes in the finance sphere , they ultimately didn’t materialise and this ended up being a blessing in disguise!”
A friend that worked in recruitment suggested that it would suit Gideon’s people skills, and he joined a graduate recruitment scheme at a leading multi-sector national recruiter in the summer of 2006 where he spent the next three years recruiting lawyers. “I was so nervous at first and hated having to be on the phone. I’d had a previous temp job at a high street firm recruiting retail workers, which was my only previous experience of the recruitment world. But the graduate scheme was excellent and I learned the ropes and the legal market very quickly.”
Gideon was so successful that he won a prize from his employer within his first full years’ service which paid for his honeymoon in Australia! It was around this time that the effects of the global financial crisis were being felt on the legal sector, and his company subsequently moved him into recruiting policy professionals for charities. “I initially resisted the internal transfer as I had invested so much time in getting to know the legal sector and building relationships with clients and candidates and wanted to persevere with it.”
Gideon already knew Deacon’s founder Paul Deacon socially, and Paul offered him the opportunity to join his team as its second associate recruiter – enabling him to use his existing legal network and build up his own desk. One of his strengths is in building long-term relationships with candidates. “I’m still in touch with people that I placed as juniors that are now partners and are instructing me to find lawyers for their own teams. I also keep in contact with people I didn’t end up placing – one later set up his own company and I have placed lawyers in his team. Nurturing relationships is so important and it helps that I genuinely enjoy speaking with and helping people and always want to learn.”
One of the things that Gideon likes most about recruitment is that he can help make a difference to peoples’ lives. For example, when he is assisting lawyers that are moving to the UK from jurisdictions such as India, Australia or New Zealand, they tend to not know the UK legal market as well and trust his judgement on which firms would best suit their skills, experience and personality.
He is always honest and realistic with his candidates and sometimes finds he needs to manage their expectations. “Some candidates moving to London from Scotland, Ireland or the regions for example can be really clued up on the market but may not understand what it is really like to work in a major US or international firm in London and what will be expected of them. I can help dispel the myths and provide them with the pros and cons of each firm to help them make a decision. This includes advising them not to make a move just yet if I don’t think it would be in their best interests.”
It’s this honesty that Gideon’s candidates appreciate, since referrals are very important in building his network. “I’m lucky in that I genuinely enjoy what I do for a living, and am very appreciative as I know that not everyone does. I want to do what I can to help individuals find a great role for the next step in their career and source great candidates for my clients.”
Of course, like any job, legal recruitment has its ups and downs. “I’m naturally competitive and I will admit to getting a buzz when I place someone over a rival recruiter. It’s very satisfying when placements work out really well and I get lovely feedback and testimonials from appreciative candidates . On the flip side, it can be frustrating when I’m ghosted by candidates, or they change their minds about what they want.”
Gideon feels that Deacon has a very special culture and he wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. “When we interview new recruits they sometimes ask ‘what’s the catch?’ as everyone gets on so well and it can sometimes feel a bit too good to be true when we talk them through the culture of the business. We all trust each other implicitly and genuinely work well as a team. Despite the high financial stakes involved, it is very rare for internal disputes to materialise within our team. It’s also a non-hierarchical and mature environment, you’re not micro-managed and trusted to work in whatever way best suits you.”