Encouraging News From London
January 20, 2010 by Damian
I received an email from one of my colleagues in London this morning which should give those people thinking of going to London some hope.
The tenor of the email was that although it is still very difficult for an overseas lawyer to secure a position in London, some firms are now are starting to look at overseas lawyers again.
The catch is that, as it stands, you really need at least 3 years experience from a leading firm, have a work permit (i.e. do not need to be sponsored) and be on the ground in London for interview.
I realise that these criteria are reasonably hard to meet but for those that do meet them, it looks like there may be some opportunities for you at present. For those that don’t, I’m afraid that the best advice that I can give is to sit tight and wait for the market to develop further and take your chance later in the year.
If you would like to have a chat about this in more detail, feel free to give me a call!!
Interesting Articles For 2010
January 12, 2010 by Damian
I have come across a few articles recently that I thought that I should share.
The first three come from the ALB website and can be found by following this link -
http://www.au.legalbusinessonline.com/e-magazines/magazine.aspx?id=39186.
In this edition, there is an article about Kensington Swan’s decision to open an office in Abu Dhabi as well as an interview with the new Chairman at Simpson Grierson in which he talks about his plans for the future of that firm. Another very interesting article called ‘Southward Bound’ discusses the difficulties and benefits of North Island firms operating in the South Island.
Over at Lawyers Weekly, I found some very illuminating articles describing the year just past and the year just begun under the very dramatic headline of ’2009 - The Year That Changed The Legal Profession’ :
http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/au/features/special_reports/
Another one to have a look at, also from Lawyers Weekly, again grandly titled ‘Five Tips To Get To The Top’ gives some hints about how to best position yourself when you are thinking about changing jobs. All are pretty obvious but it is worth a look, nonetheless.
The last one for the time being gives an overview of the markets across the globe and tries to predict what locations will be attractive for lawyers in 2010 -
I am not sure whether I completely agree with some of this analysis but suffice to say, there will hopefully be more activity in these areas than there was in 2009!!

