Hi Danny,

I found a placement in the basement recently, but am not sure how to proceed with it.

The candidate, we’ll call her Jane, interviewed with the company in 2014. It went well, but she turned down the offer 9/2/2014. That was also the last contact I had with the company about Jane.

In October, 2014, I checked in with Jane to see if she’d had a change of heart about the offer, but she hadn’t.

I found out recently that she started with the company in September 2015. I contacted Jane, and she informed me that she applied directly July 2015, and started after Labor Day (September 7) 2015. It’s a very similar, but slightly more senior position.

The signed agreement – my agreement – says, “The fee is payable should you or any of your affiliated companies engage such a candidate for any position within one year after our most recent communication relating to such candidate.”

So, on one hand, it’s been over a year, by a few days. The skeptic in me says, “not by accident”. On the other hand, Jane did apply at around the nine month mark, during a time in which I still had representation.

I had recently written off the company as a “client” since they have become non-responsive. There are at least three internal recruiters there, so it’s not a welcoming environment.

The fee would be around $24,000. I was thinking of sending an invoice and pushing it a little. It’s not one I would go to the attorneys for though.

Your thoughts?

My Response

I get several of these a month from ATD members and experience in my own firm quite often and I might as well walk around with a Scythe and Hooded cape since I always get accused of being the Grim Reaper of Legal realities, but in your case, I think we got something here!!

You have two things in your favor:

There was no other agency involved. If there was, you’d be out of luck. Their fee. Clear procuring cause. I’d rather be them than you.

She started after a year but you forget all about that, because she reconnected 9 months later!!

So now you huff and puff and have yourself a little tizzy fit…Send a certified letter with an invoice. In the letter include a copy of your fee agreement with the section and language about the timing highlighted. Make it clear the payment is overdue and therefore you expect payment by some arbitrary date very close to now!!

Now here is the important part. When they call back, and they will, they are expecting you to accuse and scream and yell and be all “recruiter dearest,” but you defy expectations and take it down. You understand these things happen, Jane probably didn’t have nefarious intentions, and in 9 months it’s easy to forget the original referral, so you are not impugning their integrity, but you do want to get paid.

I like your chances!! Okay, time to put my hood on, pick up the scythe and wander the office. Good luck!!