Legal recruiters will have to reduce their finders’ fees as law firms look to cut costs in the economic slowdown, according to Patricia Walsh, director of human resources at national firm Hammonds.

Her comments came after a recent survey by recruitment company cvmail found that the average percentage of a newly hired lawyer’s salary paid to recruitment agencies was 20%, with the highest rate 30% and the lowest 11%. However, Walsh said fees could be well over 30% for a senior hire.

She said: ‘Fees will go down because firms can encourage more direct applications in the current market. There will be less use of headhunters in order to cut out the high percentage fees.’

The survey also found that 8% of the UK’s biggest commercial law firms are set to cut headcount this year, while 47% will either reduce or maintain current staff levels.

Andy Eddleston, commercial manager at cvmail, said: ‘Commercial law firms will be much more cautious about cutting head counts than the banking community as they will be hoping to pick up more litigation, insolvency and employment law related work that is expected to be a by-product of the credit crunch.’

Twenty-six human resources departments from commercial law firms responded to the survey, including two from the magic circle.