David Childs is hiring. His efforts to find three non-executives for his recently adopted home at accounting watchdog the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) are a far cry from his past life at leading UK law firm Clifford Chance (CC).

There the staff numbers involved were far larger. And, despite overseeing a wave of international expansion across Australia, Asia and the Middle East, he will forever be more closely linked with huge cuts in headcount rather than growth.

Taking on the managing partner position in 2006, shortly before the financial crisis hit, Childs was forced to take the unprecedented step of culling 15% of the partnership three years later. The sweeping 2009 restructuring of the top end of the firm came alongside 350 redundancies elsewhere, defining Child's term.