About That Job You Applied For Two Years Ago

Say this for lawyers: they get around to things. Sure, the process might take a while, much longer than one would reasonably expect. But at the end of the day, lawyers do their paperwork.

Apparently, somebody at Squire Sanders in the U.K. has been catching up on old emails. Really old emails. Like, job application emails that were sent during the height of the recession.

I bet people who applied to Squire Sanders in 2009 thought that the firm had forgotten about them, but that is not the case! The firm just needed to get its ducks in a row. Now that it’s had time to full assess the economic landscape, the firm has decided that it’s no longer hiring….

Roll on Friday tells the dramatic tale of what happened to a person who applied to the British firm, Hammonds, that merged with Squire Sanders:

The wannabe solicitor submitted an electronic training contract application form way back in the mists of May 2009. And – no doubt – spent sleepless nights waiting for an invite to an interview to ping into their inbox. Sadly, nothing arrived.

Until this week, when our hero was somewhat surprised to receive the following communication:

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your application for a training contract with Squire, Sanders and Dempsey.

Hammonds and Squire Sanders Dempsey combined on 1 January 2011 to create a new top tier global legal practice. Having considered the firm’s graduate recruitment requirements post merger, we are no longer recruiting for training contracts commencing in 2011 or 2012.

Blaming the delay on the merger would be fine if the person had applied a few months ago. But we’re talking about a person who applied for a job in May 2009. I mean, in May 2009 this applicant could have said “no way will a musical television show ever work,” without getting a slushy thrown on him.

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In any event, Roll on Friday wrested this explanation out of Squire Sanders:

A spokeswoman for the firm said “the error relating to the training contract application was due to an unfortunate communication glitch. We believe that the trainee applicant concerned had already received an earlier email from the firm. We are currently comparing our 2009 outreach with the automated message in order to apologise to the individual concerned for the error and for any inconvenience caused”.

Let’s just hope the firm handles potential clients better than it deals with potential employees.

P.S. We feel for Squire Sanders — and don’t want to be too hard on them. Here at Above the Law, we are unfortunately unable to respond to every email that we receive, due to the sheer volume of such communications.

Exclusive: Squire Sanders takes two years to reject candidate [Roll on Friday]

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Earlier: Law Firm Merger Mania: Squire Sanders and Hammonds Tie the Transatlantic Knot