Why We Started R & B Global Consultants — And What We're Building

Why We Started

The legal recruitment market is large, noisy, and largely reactive. The dominant model. Inbound applications, LinkedIn sourcing, job boards, was designed for volume, not precision. It works for the average hire. It fails for the exceptional one. Barney Gibson and Rhys Sachett founded R & B Global Consultants to solve a specific problem: the best lawyers are never looking, and the firms that need them most do not have the infrastructure to find them. Legal recruitment built around headhunting, direct market mapping, targeted outreach, candidate relationships built over time is truthfully how elite placements actually happen. That is the only model we operate.

"We started this because we kept seeing the same thing — great lawyers in the wrong firms, and great firms unable to find the right lawyers. That gap should not exist. We are here to close it." — Barney Gibson, CEO, R & B Global Consultants

How We Actually Work

Where general recruitment firms rely on inbound enquiries, LinkedIn sourcing, and job board advertising, we pick up the phone. Every search begins with a market map, a comprehensive picture of who is operating at the required level across the relevant jurisdiction. We identify the individuals who represent the strongest fit, approach them directly, and manage the entire process from first conversation to placement. Since January 2025, our placement rate has been 100%. Our average time to placement is 11 days. Candidates are engaged the same day a shortlist is approved. These are not targets. They are our current numbers and they are the direct result of doing recruitment the way it was always supposed to be done.

"Headhunting is not a premium add-on. It needs to be the baseline. Everything else is just advertising." — Rhys Sachett, COO, R & B Global Consultants

The Retained Model — And Why It Matters

More than 90% of our work is now conducted on a retained basis. That is not an accident. Retained partnerships create the conditions for a genuinely thorough search. The time to map the market properly, the alignment between recruiter and client that produces better outcomes, and the signal to the market that the mandate is serious. Contingency recruitment incentivises speed over quality. Retained recruitment incentivises the right result. The firms that partner with us on a retained basis get dedicated teams and resources, full market visibility, and a placement process that treats their hire as the priority it actually is. The R & B Global Standard is only deliverable under those conditions.

What We Are Building: The Database and Our Vacancies

In July 2026, we are opening our vetted candidate database directly to client firms. Rather than waiting for a vacancy to trigger a search, firms with database access will be able to move proactively and much faster, identifying talent in their target practice areas, regions, and seniority levels before a seat even exists. Every candidate in the database has been personally vetted, directly engaged, and profiled by our team. This is not a CV library. It is an independent intelligence layer built from our headhunting activity across the UK, UAE, and USA. The Database gives our clients a material advantage in the competition for elite legal talent.

On the other side of that equation sit our vacancies. Because we operate on a retained, headhunt-first basis, the roles we carry are sourced before they reach the open market. No job boards. No firm hiring platforms. No public listings. The mandates we hold represent some of the most sought-after UK legal jobs available at any given moment, exclusive, time-sensitive, and only accessible through us. For lawyers who want to know what the market genuinely looks like for their profile, this is where that conversation starts.

The Bigger Picture

R & B Global Consultants operates across UK legal recruitment, legal jobs in Dubai, and the US market simultaneously. We work with law firms and in-house legal teams at every level. From newly qualified associates through to senior equity partners. Our newsroom exists to build genuine legal news in the legal recruitment space, because the firms and lawyers who trust us deserve to know that we understand this market as deeply as we claim to. If you are a firm looking for a recruitment partner that actually places quality of placement over speed (it is true you can have both but), or a lawyer who wants to know what the market looks like for someone with your profile, the conversation starts here.