Partner on Six-Month Secondment Discovered at Client Four Years Later

Wetherby Dodd has located a missing partner in the signature block of a letter terminating its appointment as external counsel.

Barnaby Cresswell, dispatched to Calderwick Packaging plc for six months in 2022, signed the letter as general counsel. The firm initially assumed the signature had been copied incorrectly. A search of the client’s website established that he had recently opened a distribution centre.

He was holding ceremonial scissors.

Mr Cresswell, formerly a commercial partner at the UK Super Sister, remembers asking about his return around month five. The relationship partner said they should “let things settle”. After that, people at Calderwick began inviting him to meetings at which decisions were made.

“Once they gave me authority to make decisions, I assumed I must have left.”

He now manages eleven people, has a parking space and appears in the company’s pension presentation. Colleagues describe him as permanent staff. One was surprised to learn he had previously worked anywhere else.

The temporary arrangement

• October 2022: Arrives for six months. Wetherby Dodd announces an investment in client intimacy.
• March 2023: Asks about returning. Advised that continuity is important.
• April 2024: Promoted to deputy general counsel. Firm records increased access to senior decision-makers.
• September 2025: Promoted to general counsel. Added to Wetherby Dodd’s list of influential client contacts under a duplicate entry.
• October 2026: Removes Wetherby Dodd from the panel. Original secondment end date remains in a document nobody owns.

His costs had continued to pass between the two organisations through a monthly recharge. Finance confirmed that the arrangement had attracted no attention because the invoices were paid.

Both employers have now produced appraisals demonstrating that they were closely monitoring his performance.

Wetherby Dodd: exceeds expectations

Barnaby has achieved exceptional proximity to the client’s leadership. He anticipates its requirements, understands its commercial pressures and is routinely consulted before external legal expenditure is approved. Client-service score: 5/5.

Calderwick Packaging: exceeds expectations

Barnaby has challenged inherited supplier arrangements and reduced unnecessary external legal expenditure by 34 per cent. His detailed knowledge of our former panel firm’s staffing and rates proved particularly useful. Cost management: 5/5.

Wetherby Dodd has asked Calderwick to amend the second appraisal. Calderwick has asked to use the first in its annual report.

A return meeting has been proposed, although HR says it must first establish whether Mr Cresswell requires offboarding, onboarding or a visitor’s pass. His office at the firm became a wellbeing room in 2023 and is now storage for unused wellbeing furniture.

For now, he remains on secondment. Wetherby Dodd has asked him to help win the client back. He has advised that it does not meet the minimum criteria.