Legal Jobs Market Changes As Recession Bites

Legal Jobs Market Changes As Recession Bites

LawFuel.co.nz - Legal Jobs Online - The legal jobs market is changing rapidly in the volatile international market, with more lawyers looking to remain in New Zealand and others looking to return home.

Recruiters spoken to by LawFuel also said employers were becoming increasingly choosey when recruiting, preferring lawyers with experience over new graduates.

"Firms and companies are definitely looking for people at the more senior level at present. There are rarely a surfeit of positions at the junior level but vacancies at the intermediate level are becoming rarer as solicitors at that level who historically have moved en masse overseas at the 2-3 year level are now staying where they are as their chances of securing a position overseas have dried up dramatically," says Damian Hanna.

LawFuel spoke with a number of local recruiters who said that there were several areas of high demand for lawyers, but also some key changes that lawyers seeking jobs needed to be aware of. Other recruiters agree. Lynda Goston of H2R recruitment says most firms are looking for intermediate and senior solicitors - solicitors with at least 3 years PQE and above.

"Likewise for an inhouse legal counsel role in a corporate company they usually look for someone with at least 3 or 4 years PQE in commercial law," she says.

The change in law firm fortunes has seen significant layoffs in both the UK and the US with international firms increasingly sending lawyers to their offshore offices if they remain with a job at all. The economic downturn has resulted in a surge of interest in offshore outposts like Dubai, Qatar, Hong Kong and China. However those markets too are becoming sated by the quality lawyers seeking work and the downturn has not left them unaffected.

ENDS

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