There has been much talk in the legal press in recent weeks of ‘green shoots of recovery’. While lawyers working in structured credit and capital markets may strongly dispute this, certain practice areas continue to remain busy, and we are seeing a few areas pick up, albeit very tentatively.
While redundancies or reduced hours are still making the news, dig deeper and you’ll find in many cases there is still a substantial amount of work there. This is borne out by the number of temporary assignments that we are receiving, particularly from the larger City firms that historically would have been able to cover internally.
The hiring that is taking place tends to be at the more senior end with salaried and junior equity partners
We are seeing very few permanent positions at the associate or senior associate level in City and corporate-focused West End firms. With UK based revenue decreasing in many firms, and lower work volumes, there is less work trickling down from partners to keep associates busy. The hiring that is taking place tends to be at the more senior end with salaried and junior equity partners still able to move provided they have a portable following and / or a good client base. Some of this hiring is speculative as smaller firms look to absorb partners that no longer align with their old firm’s new strategy, and other hires are strategic as larger firms bolster their business generation ability by bringing in experienced partners.
However other areas remain solid and economic conditions are ensuring that both employment and personal injury claims are on the increase and some of the larger law firms are setting up telephone advice lines to deal with this demand – which can be easily manned by paralegals.
Commercial firms continue to recruit permanently in personal injury, clinical negligence, insolvency, debt recovery, commercial/property/finance litigation and employment. Personal injury is seeing a high number of EL and PL cases coming through, although RTA are claims going down. Employment on both the claimant and respondent side is also very busy thanks to an increase in redundancies and unfair dismissal. Family has been consistently busy, with many firms trying to get a legal aid franchise just to retain some business and market share.
It is also encouraging to report glimmers of an upturn in the property market. For the first time this year, we are receiving requests for residential and commercial property holiday cover. Six months ago, any need would have been covered internally but the spring cyclical movement seems to be placing further demands on property departments. Whether this spells the beginning of a longer-term move or a short-lived cycle is too soon to predict but the signs are definitely more promising than at the start of 2009.
