“Salaries plateau in 2009 – but for how long?”
June 30, 2009 by Damian
Have a look at this article from the Australasian Legal Business (ALB) magazine (and not just because I am quoted in it!) – http://au.legalbusinessonline.com/news/analysis/salaries-plateau-in-2009-but-for-how-long/35739.
It gives a very interesting overview of the Australian legal market and how the GFC has affected it, especially in relation to salaries.
Whether it is just that NZ firms keep this information quieter or whether they are just in better shape than their Australian counterparts is a point for discussion but it seems like we in NZ have not been hit quite as hard as our friends across the Tasman.
It would be interesting to hear some anonymous views on the subjects of salary freezes in the NZ market so if anyone wants to share some information on this subject, please do!
UK/NZ Law Firm Mergers
June 30, 2009 by Damian
The big news this week in the legal world is the merger between UK heavyweights Norton Rose and the mid-tier Australian firm, Deacons – http://www.thelawyer.com/norton-rose-signs-tie-up-with-australias-deacons/1001147.article.
It is the first merger between a major UK law firm and a significant player in the Australian market and has provoked a lot of intense debate on websites such as The Lawyer and Legal Week, some of which has been very insightful, some of it being just downright xenophobic.
The rationale behind the merger seems to be a desire to shore up both firm’s practices in the Asian market. Only time will tell if it is successful or not but as more than one contributor to the debate has pointed out, it will definitely increase the amount of top quality Australian lawyers wanting to join Deacons as people see the inevitable secondment opportunities that the merger will bring to lawyers within the firm.
The merger has got me thinking about the possibility of a UK/NZ merger. I have never heard any talk of it, probably because the UK firms cannot see any upside to it but if it did happen, how about these potential merger partners?
If Slaughter & May merged with Russell McVeagh, the firm could be called Slaughter & McVeagh.
If Simmons & Simmons merged with Simpson Grierson, the firm could easily be called Simpson & Simmons.
Similarly, Olswang and Kensington Swan could be Olswan and AJ Park and SJ Berwin could be AJ Berwin.
It is doubtful that any of these fanciful mergers will ever happen but I am sure that the leading lights in the NZ firms, as well as the Australian firms, will be looking at the Norton Rose/Deacons merger to see how successful or not it turns out to be.
The Recruitment Cycle
June 23, 2009 by Damian
The Global Financial Crisis (or whatever it is now called) has impacted the legal recruitment market in many ways, the main and obvious one being fewer jobs and more candidates.
However, one of the most interesting effects from a recruiter’s point of view, is the length of time it now takes to get someone into a new role. Whereas in the boom market, employers were very quick off the mark to get candidates in for interviews and make them offers before their competitors did, they now take a much more considered approach. The CV evaluation process takes longer, the interview process takes longer and is more involved, the post-interview evaluation takes longer and even getting an offer letter out now can take some time.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with this. In the current environment, employers have every right to make sure that the person that they are hiring is the right person for the role. For them, I am sure that it is a refreshing change to not have to drop everything else just to get someone in for an interview in case they go elsewhere.
However, as it is contrary to the way that the process has been handled over the last few years, candidates can get frustrated at the length of time that it takes to get a final decision.
As such, I think that is part of my (and other recruiters’ jobs) to take some control of this process. We can do this in two ways – (1) we give the candidates a very realistic timeframe at the start of the process – forewarned is forearmed and (2) we keep in constant contact with our clients to ensure that momentum is kept up. We ask them to provide us with information on when decisions are going to be made and we communicate this to our candidates.
Hopefully this way, candidates do not lose interest and clients still end up with the best person for the job.