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Award-winning specialists in legal & compliance recruitment

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SEE OUR JOBSSUBMIT A ROLE

Looking to hire?

​Through extensive training and experience, we ensure that every consultant at Rutherford is a market expert; a receptive ear and a trusted voice in their industry.

​If you are looking for truly specialised legal and regulatory compliance recruiters, get in touch with our headhunters today. Our firm covers recruiting for compliance, in-house legal, private practice legal and financial crime, all within the financial, professional and legal services sectors.

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Our Services
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Trusted Governance, Legal and Compliance Headhunters in London and around the globe

Our boutique firm has some of the best compliance and legal recruitment consultants in the United Kingdom and the United States, who have built highly curated networks over the years.

If you are looking for your next career move, you may wish to speak to our legal and compliance recruitment agency consultants for a confidential conversation. Alternatively, if you would like to discuss the regulatory compliance jobs we can help your firm with, call us or send the compliance role your are recruiting for through our Submit Role form and an expert compliance recruitment consultant will get back to you within a few hours. Our firm also offers in-house legal recruitment services, as well as private practice recruitment for the legal sector.

Rutherford in Numbers

94%

of permanent placements made in the last two years are still in position

89

is our Net Promoter Score (NPS) with Candidates

91

is our Net Promoter Score (NPS) with Clients

57%

of our placements so far in 2023 are from a diverse background

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Search to Succeed

Rutherford is a highly specialist legal and regulatory compliance risk recruitment agency based in both London and New York, founded in 2011. Ever since its inception, the agency's focus has been legal and compliance within the financial, professional and legal services sectors. Our success lies in dedicated work recruiting legal and compliance professionals within the space. Our team of top compliance and legal headhunters in NYC and London has worked tirelessly in the past decade to build a vast network of strong talent within our dedicated markets.​

A Cut Above The Rest 

Over the years, we have identified both the rising stars and the best-experienced talent in our field, accompanying them along their professional journey. Our compliance and legal headhunters have developed carefully curated relationships to ensure we always guarantee a perfect cultural fit for our clients, some of the most renowned financial services firms across the globe.

A More Diverse Offering to Better Respond to Your Needs

​In recent years, we have added some new specialisms in order to meet our client's needs, providing now an even more comprehensive pool of regulatory, legal and governance talent.

Our London-based compliance staffing agency has therefore widened its offering, with the introduction of in-house legal, financial crime and private practice recruitment services within financial, legal and professional services.

Services Tailored to Your Needs

Rutherford provides different types of services to its clients, with the goal to always find a solution that is best suited to their recruitment needs.

As a legal and compliance executive search firm, we offer retained search services for niche, highly specialised roles in the field. We will adopt a tailored and rigorous approach to secure premier compliance candidates.

For a quicker delivery, you can opt for our contingent recruitment services which have been built to meet your short-term hiring needs. Our legal and compliance headhunters will tap into their sizeable network and database to bring you top talent in the sector.
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Contact Us

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About Rutherford

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About Us

Every day we are building relationships with the future legal and governance leaders and identifying the problem solvers, strategic thinkers and innovators.

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Our Values

We value honesty and integrity as well as long-lasting partnerships with our clients and candidates.

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Our Team

We are a dynamic bunch, with expert consultants and a back-office team dedicated to the highest levels of service delivery.

Why Rutherford as Your Legal & Compliance Executive Search Partner?​

01

Reputation

​We have a reputation for quality, reliability and market knowledge and professionalism. Don't let us go on about it though; see what clients and candidates have to say about us instead.

02

Selection Process

​We do the hard work for you. We have a rigorous screening process and will only send you a select few of the most qualified resumes to peruse.

03

Retention & Cost

A good recruitment agency should be able to place employee that will last in their position. We are confident in our retention rate: 94% of our permanent placements made in the last two years are still in position today.

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Latest Roles

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Private Practice

5+ PQE Leveraged Finance Associate

London

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Private Practice

Competition Senior Associate

London

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Private Practice

Competition Associate - NQ - 4 PQE

London

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Private Practice

Corporate M&A Associate - 1-3 PQE

London

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Private Practice

Structured Finance Associate

London

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Private Practice

Private Equity Associate - 5+ PQE

London

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Private Practice

Private Equity Associate - US Firm - 2-5 PQE

London

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Private Practice

Leveraged Finance Associate

London

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Private Practice

Structured Finance Associate/Lawyer - 1-6 PQE - Elite US Firm

London

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Private Practice

Structured Finance Associate/Lawyer (2-6 PQE)

London

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Private Practice

Commercial Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Birmingham

Birmingham

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Oxford

Oxford

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Manchester

Manchester

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Leeds

Leeds

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Guildford

Guildford District

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Exeter

Exeter

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Bristol

Bristol

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm – Brighton

Brighton

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Private Practice

Banking Partner/Legal Director, Regional Law Firm

Birmingham

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Private Practice

Leveraged Finance Associate, Elite US law firm - London (1-3 PQE)

London

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Private Practice

Fund Finance Associate, London – Elite US law firm (NQ-3 PQE)

London

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Private Practice

Commercial Real Estate Associate/Senior Associate (4-6 PQE)

London

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Private Practice

1-4 PQE Investment Funds Associate

London

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Private Practice

Senior Corporate Associate/Lawyer

London

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Private Practice

Funds Associate - 1-4 PQE (relocation to London)

Luxembourg

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Compliance

Director of Compliance

London

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In-house Legal

Legal Counsel - General

City of London

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Private Practice

Associate - Tax/M&A - Elite US Law firm, London (Cravath Scale)

London

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Private Practice

Insurance Senior Associate (non-contentious) Highly Ranked Global Law Firm

London

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Private Practice

Funds Associate - Bristol

Bristol

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Private Practice

Partner – Financial Services Regulation (leading global law firm/London)

London

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Some of Our Clients

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Testimonials

​There aren't enough words to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to Rutherford for their assistance in helping me land an amazing role at a phenomenal private equity firm.


Rutherford's Compliance recruitment consultants were friendly, proactive, encouraging, and extremely helpful in guiding me through the recruitment process. I never once chased them and was consistently on the receiving end of calls, getting regular updates on the progress made. They kept an open and honest line of communication and spent a considerable amount of time prepping me at each stage of the process.


Their technical knowledge coupled with their down-to-earth personality makes Rutherford undoubtedly an amazing choice of a compliance recruitment firm if you're considering a career move in the legal or compliance sectors.

Compliance Associate, Leading European Private Equity Firm

​During the time I have known Rutherford, their compliance recruitment team have shown a combination of efficiency, consistency and a frankness which is rarely found amongst their competitors. I have been consistently impressed by my compliance headhunter's attitude whenever we have interacted. He was very encouraging and patient, just a genuinely nice person too. Would highly recommend him and Rutherford, and will be eternally grateful to them for helping me secure a role at my dream firm.

Compliance Director, Generation Investment Management

​We have worked with Rutherford Search on a number of occasions to find candidates for regulatory/compliance positions and I’ve always found their London compliance recruitment team to be professional and helpful. They’ve done a great job of helping us find the best possible candidates and we have always been very pleased with the service offered.


Their compliance recruiters is proactive and reliable, invested in understanding and meeting our needs as a client and, most importantly, they are able to find and suggest great candidates which meet our specific briefs. The quality of service and candidates that we have received has always been high and this is indicative of Rutherford’s well-deserved reputation in the market.

Global Head of Compliance & Regulatory, FTSE 250 Asset Manager
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Ready to start hiring with us?