Leading corporates are hungry for experienced regulation lawyers to bulk up their compliance departments before far-reaching anti-corruption laws are implemented, recruiters told the Gazette this week.

With the Bribery Act due to come into force in April, major corporates, especially in heavy industry, are increasingly turning to experienced in-house lawyers, and to a lesser extent, private practice lawyers with regulation expertise, to fill compliance officer roles, the recruiters said.

The Bribery Act introduces a corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery, under which company executives could face personal criminal liability if found to have connived or consented to offering or receiving a bribe. Companies will have a defence if they can show they had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery.

Simon Hankey, senior client partner at executive search firm Korn/Ferry, said demand for compliance officers has risen dramatically over the last six months, and that companies often stress a preference for candidates with legal backgrounds.

‘There’s a greater need for senior compliance professionals within lead corporates, as companies need to demonstrate that they are meeting the increased regulatory demands upon them,’ he said.

‘This includes the up-and-coming Bribery Act, which is more onerous than the [US] Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Currently, many companies are considering the creation of a compliance function or the enhancement of their existing teams.

‘The compliance function is developing, so there is a shallow pool of experienced compliance officers across the ­traditional industries sector,’ he said.

Shami Iqbal, head of the UK legal and compliance practice at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, said that salaries for compliance officers have increased as demand has risen over the past two years.

Hankey said that the demand for senior general counsel has remained relatively stable throughout the financial crisis. He warned that law firm partners seeking to work in-house face stiff competition.

‘There’s a perception that partners are moving for negative rather than positive reasons,’ he said, ‘and they will have to justify their motivation for such a move as well as ­facing the challenge of competing with seasoned in-house lawyers’.