Shaping recruitment to diversify your talent

Featured in our Diversity Report (October 2021)

Bav Patel, Director at Dandi Legal, explains how law firms can address the diversity challenge

What was the inspiration behind Dandi Legal? When law firms encourage recruitment agencies to find ‘diverse’ candidates, they invariably focus on standard requirements: outstanding academics and relevant experience in a comparable firm. Their assessment at the graduate recruitment level is very detailed, which provides an excellent opportunity to understand each candidate’s situation and achievements fully, giving us a chance to recommend the best talent to clients.

As paralegal recruiters, we have experienced success in placing fantastic candidates from less privileged backgrounds who quite often go on to secure training contracts – some of the most satisfying placements we have worked on. Paralegals usually have limited experience and are judged primarily on academics. We’ve taken the opportunity to influence firms
of a candidate’s capability and potential, even if they were not from the typical mould which law firms usually consider. Although a candidate may have what appear as average academics on paper, given the opportunity they can come across very impressively in person.

This experience led us to consider how we could leverage our expertise and experience in graduate recruitment and combine that with the rewarding aspect of having a really positive impact on the careers of people from a disadvantaged background. Dandi Legal was conceived with those two principles in mind.