Picture these scenarios:

·         one of your firm’s paralegals is arrested on an outstanding armed robbery warrant while working on trial preparation in your client’s office (literally led out of the client’s office in handcuffs);

·         a client is notified by a neighborhood group that a pedophile has moved into his neighborhood. The flyer includes your firm’s name as his employer; and

·         one of your secretaries leaks news of the sale of a client’s subsidiary that causes the deal to crater. The secretary is openly quoted in the story and the client learns that she has long history of leaking confidential employer information to the media. 

 

All three of these scenarios actually occurred. In each case the embarrassment could have been avoided if the firms had performed background checks on their employees. 

 

We recently did a very basic survey of large law firms about their policy on background checks for new employees. Most do checks on new attorneys but very few investigate staff members. None of the firms we contacted did background checks on temporary employees, because they felt it was the temp agency’s responsibility. Criminal records checks and social security number verification cost about $30 from a variety of sources and can be done in a few minutes. For around $100 there are companies that will do a full pre-employment check, including previous employers and education as well as social security verification.