Linklaters has made a series of hires on the back of a partnership with an IT consulting firm that specialises in finding roles for individuals on the autism spectrum.

The firm has recruited three autistic employees for roles that will see them contribute to the pitching process in tandem with the marketing and business development teams, with a focus on data analysis and data matching.

Linklaters signed up to work with Auticon, which was founded in 2011, last March. The company will provide mentoring to the individuals joining Linklaters to ensure they are managed according to their needs.

Chief operating officer Matt Peers, who has pioneered the initiative, told Legal Week: "The initiative is ultimately about getting really clever people into the workplace, who wouldn't ordinarily be employable because they find it difficult to integrate and often aren't managed in the right way."

The new employees will focus on formatting data and ensuring it is correctly loaded into the firm's new pitching platform, Pitch Perfect, which has been created by software company Enable.

Peers said the tasks combine a huge amount of data analysis, but also require human interpretation – which is why the new employees are well suited.

"Everyone thinks technology can deliver every solution under the sun, but actually the human brain is amazing. What these autistic people can do is a huge amount of data analysis, and spotting of errors and inconsistencies, but they can also quickly scan and analyse what the most relevant information is – that's something a computer would find hard to do, or would take a long time to train to do."

The three new employees are employed on a project basis, and are expected to be with the firm for two to three months. However, Peers said the firm has a "neverending" list of projects that he suspects he will turn to Auticon for support on.

Auticon CEO Ray Coyle said: "Unemployment among autistic adults is a major issue in the UK. By working with Auticon, City firms can not only address the unemployment issues among autistic adults but also benefit from our consultants' market-leading skillsets on complex IT and compliance projects."