Your recent feature on recruitment (see [2006] Gazette, 3 August, 16) reminds me that many years ago, when I was a partner in a large commercial practice, I advocated to a partners' meeting that we should adopt a counter-cyclical hiring policy.



That is to say, when times were lean, we should increase the number of trainees we agreed to take on, and cut the numbers in times of boom.



My logic was twofold. First, there is a gap of some four to five years between the time of job offer and the time the new recruits would make a real contribution. It was more likely than not that the economic winds would change direction in the intervening period.



Second, we could take a better pick of recruits when times were lean. My proposal was too counter-intuitive to be taken seriously by my partners. However, I continue to believe that if some firms adopted this policy, both they and the legal recruitment market would benefit in the long term.



Laurie Elks, Criminal Cases Review Commission, Birmingham