The Law Doesn’t Care Who Arranged the Interview

Editor’s note: Jeff Allen has heard every employer excuse you can imagine for not paying up — and dozens more that defy imagination. A few years ago he began documenting them in a weekly collections column. Because of the importance of collections, Fordyce will periodically reprise the most common situations he addressed. The complete collection is here.

What Client Says:

You didn’t arrange the interview.

How Client Pays:

Arranging the interview has absolutely nothing to do with your right to the fee. The legal issue is whether your activities caused the hire. You’re not paid for effort, you’re paid for results. That’s what contingency fees are all about.

Let’s look at five justifiable reasons why you might intentionally not set up this interview:

The candidate might respond better to a direct call from the hiring authority.
The candidate might insist on a direct call call from the hiring authority.
The hiring authority might be so excited about the candidate that he wants to pitch the job directly and immediately.
The hiring authority might be so excited about the prospect of filling the opening that he wants to call the candidate immediately.
The parties might need to personally arrange a mutually convenient time (at a trade show, board meeting, etc.).

There’s always the possibility that either party calls or e-mails the other without informing you. Maybe it’s even because they hate you. If love got you paid, you’d be penniless.

The candidate is the client’s pickpocketing partner.

So just stay close to the candidate. He’s your inventory, and he can’t hide for long. You’ll get paid fast on this one if you recognize that interview arranging is a smattering of mattering!