Jackson Baker

Director, Legal & Compliance

About Jackson Baker

Jackson Baker is the Director of the Legal & Compliance desk at Rutherford, a London-based recruitment firm that specialises in legal, compliance and financial crime searches within law firms and financial services businesses. After finishing his double degree in Commerce and Business at the University of Newcastle, he started his professional journey in Residential Real Estate in Australia, quickly ranking within the top 10 teams of his franchise.

After moving to London, Jackson took interest in executive recruitment. At Rutherford, he has been working with a range of clientele, big and small. Most of his work is focused on the buy-side, with a specialism of advising boutique/SME firms.

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What does success look like to you?

I believe success is different for everyone: after all, we have unique values and objectives in life. I will personally judge my success on my accomplishments in life both on a personal and professional level.


In our space, I believe success can be achieved through a few things. In addition to track record, you need to build trust and relationships with individuals. As we are moving further towards a referral-based business, I think likeability and being able to build long-lasting and strong relationships is the key to long-term success.

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What is the best part of working with SME’s?

Working with SMEs is one of the key reasons why I joined Rutherford in the first place. SMEs usually have small compliance teams, meaning they require a different approach to recruiting personnel than larger organisations. It is vital to not only understand what the role encompasses, but also the personality traits that would fit best into the team and firm.

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Every firm is different, which is what makes it so interesting: finding the “cultural fit” is what we do best and ultimately, the key in retention for clients.

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I also think we add more value to SME clients: we have been working in this space for long enough to provide a range of different valuable insights.

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How did you improve your knowledge on the sector you work in?

I started by speaking with as many people in the industry as possible. Listening to experts speak about their day-to-day and views on my questions was the easiest way to improve my knowledge on the compliance world within financial services.

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What’s the most unexpected thing you ever did?

Probably leaving my close-knit community back in Australia to come to London. Back there, I had a great job, purchased a house and was very comfortable in life. To push myself out of my comfort zone by starting over on the other side of the world and in a new industry was probably the most unexpected thing I have ever done.

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What changes do you anticipate in the future for the compliance sector?

I think the use of technology in compliance is going to shake the industry over the next decade. Reg-tech will be influential in increasing compliance efficiency. I believe the ability to provide advice to businesses on ever-changing regulation will continue to be the most demanded skill in the space.


In the short term, alternative data is quite a fascinating subject. Personally, I am intrigued to see what regulations will come into effect in the European market, and what result that means for compliance.

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