Exclusive: Orrick apologises for discriminatory job advert
02 September 2011
Orrick, Herrington & Suttcliffe has apologised after advertising a job for which the "ideal candidate" would be no older than 30.

The US firm posted an ad on its website looking for a European Corporate lawyer to join its Rome office. The ideal candidate would need very strong academics - "a magna cum laude Italian degree in law, a classical lyceum diploma with full marks, and an LLM degree possibly with merit or distinction" - and would enjoy working in a young environment. Which is just as well, seeing that they "would be 26-30 years old".


It may not be as egregious as the ad for Slaughter and May which suggested that the firm might condescend to look at thick antipodeans. But that was by a third party recruiter who went off on a frolic of his own. This was written by Orrick's fair hand, and even RollOnFriday's limited grasp of employment law suggests that this is discriminatory.

A spokeswoman for the firm said that "the advertisement was clearly an error and in no way reflects the firm's commitment to equality of opportunity. The advertisement has now been removed from our website. We apologise for any offence this may have caused".