Linklaters defends hiring process after unknowingly awarding TC to one of its top boss’s children

Family connection unknown

Linklaters has defended its approach to trainee recruitment after it emerged that the child of a member of the firm’s senior leadership team secured a training contract with the Magic Circle giant, with no one realising the family connection.

The unusual situation arose because the unnamed child, who has since started their training contract with the firm, goes by a different surname to their high-ranking parent.

An anonymous source who spoke to RollOnFriday, which first reported on the family connection, appeared to accept that the rookie in question might be Magic Circle material regardless, claiming that they went through the process “largely anonymously” and “perform[ed] exceptionally well”.

A Linklaters spokesperson assured Legal Cheek that everything was above board, stressing that “no one involved in assessing the candidate knew of the connection.”

“They applied through our standard graduate recruitment track and were assessed against the same criteria by the same panel as every other candidate in their intake,” the spokesperson continued. “They were offered a training contract on merit.”

City firms take differing approaches to recruiting the children of partners or other senior figures. Some impose a strict ban, keen to avoid situations accusations of nepotism and bias during the recruitment process. Others are more relaxed, focusing on an individual’s skills and attributes as a potential trainee, irrespective of who their mum or dad is.

Linklaters appears to fall into the latter. “We don’t exclude candidates because of who they’re related to,” the spokesperson continued. “We aim to recruit and develop the best people, and that only works if our recruitment process is open to everyone.”

While this isn’t the first time a law firm has hit headlines for recruiting the family member of a senior figure within it, the Linklaters situation stands out given that nobody involved in the recruitment process was aware of the connection.

This is perhaps understandable given the change of surname and the fact that the firm handles thousands of applications each year and is one of the biggest trainee recruiters in the City, with The Legal Cheek Firms Most List 2026 showing it joint top for TC numbers at around 100 a year, level with fellow Magic Circle player Clifford Chance.