We consulted industry expert, Paul Hawkinson, www.fordyceletter.com on this topic. Among other things, he provided us a widely used split partnership agreement which states:

The referring associate (or recruiter with the job order) shall not contact a candidate for networking or additional referrals, without the consent of the recruiting associate (the recruiter who refers the candidate for the job).


We agree with Paul and you TheCERecruiter.... are we supposed to monitor and not offer our opinions? Oops!   

BEWARE - there are a lot of SHADY recruiters out there who give folks like you(presumably) and I a bad name, and I guess you can only get burned once by the same recruiter.  In my years of recruiting it has ALWAYS been understood that whoever "owns" the candidate "owns" and referrals that come from that candidate, whether myself or my split partner asks for it.  In the words of Snoop Dog, what you need to do with that split partner is "Drop 'em like it's hot, Drop 'em like it's hot."

Holla back, if you like 

Let me tell you how this situation just presented itself to me and how I handled it, which I believe is the correct and ONLY way to move forward.  Nine months ago one of my split partners sent me a candidate for a position that I had, after dancing around with my client a little bit there was not a clear fit and the candidate found an opportunity elsewhere.  I recently started a search for one of my clients that required someone with this candidate's credentials, so I gave that candidate a call to check in and see how his new position was going.  Should he have been interested, I would have told my split partner and we would have moved forward as normal.  It turns out the candidate was NOT interested, but he did refer to me a GREAT candidate that I immediately called, qualified, and requested a resume which I received later that evening.  In turn, I contacted my split partner to let her know what had transpired and I forwarded to her a copy of that candidate's resume.  I then submitted that candidate to my client and should a placement occur I will split the fee down the middle with my split partner.  Ideally, I should have let my split partner contact her candidate initially and get the referral that I did, but I could not wait.  In the end, the result is the same and I felt comfortable making that call immediately since my split partner and I have the highest level of respect and trust for each other.  Now, my split partner, if she wanted, could take that resume that I just submitted and submit it to her clients as well, and should she place him, she would get 100% of the fee.  But we have agreed that she would not move on the candidate until my client had completed their full evaluation and put closure to the interview process.