Legal

1. How is the current recruitment environment?

There has been a late year surge of activity on the law firm side, although there have been less roles available in-house. There has been a significant increase in legal work stemming from a more active position taken by the regulators but financial institutions have shied away from investing in legal roles which are further costs on the business, so more work has needed to be outsourced to law firms, and they are therefore recruiting.

2. Any trends observed in the last 12 months?

There has been a trend, partly driven by cost cutting for banks and fund managers to source more roles direct, and have built up stronger internal recruitment teams to achieve this. Whilst they have been successful with more generalist roles, particularly by talking people from their law firm suppliers, they have struggled to attract candidates for specialist roles, particularly in derivatives, structured products and superannuation. Law Firms are still hiring in from overseas, but have favoured candidates who don’t require sponsorship, and those already on the ground who can start in a short time frame, rather than those still overseas with longer time frames.

3. Any views on the next 12 months?

After two years where there has been only limited movement in the in-house sector, there should be change in the first six months of 2012. Poor bonuses will compel some lawyers to seek new opportunities, others will look to move because they have been overworked and denied further headcount in their team. In an effort to retain people we think some Heads of Legal may be more successful in getting new headcount approved than this year, as the businesses realise the tipping point has been reached. These “new roles” will help get the wheels moving in the replacement market, and bring more candidates into the market.  

4. Any particular interesting observations or case studies seen recently?

Australia seems to be an increasingly attractive proposition for the large UK law firms to invest in. The global legal market has been “colonised” by the largest UK and US Firms for some time now, particularly in key financial centres such as Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore, but Australia has been left alone, until now. As a result of the resources boom, and the strength of the Australian economy as compared to Europe and the US, a number of UK Firms have launched in Australia in the last twelve months. Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Norton Rose and now Ashurst merging with Blake Dawson. Don’t expect the likes of Herbert Smith or Freshfields to be taking a watching brief for too much longer either.

The picture in Asia is dominated to a certain extent by the increasing importance of mainland Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Beijing as legal hubs. Even in the most international of global centres Hong Kong, for many roles it is essential that candidates speak and write fluent Mandarin so they can negotiate with mainland Chinese clients. Australian law firms for some time have been interested in tie-ups with international firms who have a strong presence in Hong Kong to bolster their regional capabilities- they also traditionally saw it as the best route into the Chinese market, but now a trend is emerging of directly tapping into that market by joining forces with a local firm, such as Mallesons discussions with PRC firm, King and Wood.