Don’t Believe All That You Read (Apart From What Is In This Blog)
July 13, 2010 by Damian
There is a well worn adage that you shouldn’t believe all that you read. However, as the legal press is pretty conservative, I, like most people, generally take most of what I read on face value.
People read these industry magazines to get an informed view of current events and from a recruitment point of view, to get a steer on trends and movements within the job market. As such, when people read an article commenting on the state of the job market, the message that the article conveys will permeate into that marketplace and create among the readers a perception of what the reality is.
However, when I read this article in the Australian Lawyers Weekly, it reminded me of the dangers of doing such a thing and of the responsibility that people in our industry have to give a realistic view of what the market looks like.
www.boxbreakers.com.au/News/Now-what-.aspx
The majority of this article is in fact a very informative discussion about whether lawyers who have had their pay frozen for 12 months should expect a pay rise to reflect that. There is also some very helpful comment about the dangers of jumping out of one’s current role on the basis of a minimal pay rise.
However, one of the commentators takes the discussion into a completely different realm when he states:
‘It’s an amazing market. Absolutely amazing. For a candidate it’s the most buoyant market I have ever seen.”
I have to say that I found this comment to be ‘amazing’. To make comments like the one above, in my view, gives job seekers a completely unrealistic view of their chances and is counterproductive. Any candidate reading those comments will think that it is now easy to get a job and in the event that they don’t, they will be wondering what is wrong with them.
“It’s the most buoyant market ever and I can’t get a job – what is wrong with me?”
I understand the hypocrisy of commenting on someone else’s opinion with my own. I am also aware that this article relates to the Australian rather than NZ market. However, I work closely with an agency based in Australia and the message that they convey to me is a lot different to the one above. Yes, things are better; yes, firms are hiring; yes, if you have a strong background, you should be able to get a job but according to them, it is not an ‘amazing market’, it is not a ‘buoyant market’ and to give people the impression that it is is a dangerous message to send.
Interesting Articles – Australia and Ireland
July 5, 2010 by Damian
In this job, I read a lot of articles about the world of legal practice. The vast majority are reasonably dull but I came across a couple this morning which I found to be very interesting.
The first one relates to the Irish legal market. I found this interesting, not only because it relates to my home country, but also because it highlights the ever changing nature of legal practice and contrary to what was thought a year or so, the continuing global outlook of many firms.
http://www.thelawyer.com/1004872.article
It seems as if many firms are not going to retrench and concentrate on their home jurisdictions in the face of the GFC. Instead they will continue to look overseas for new revenue streams and opportunities to expand and grow. From talking to some of my friends in legal practice in Ireland, there is a fear that the market as it currently stands is unsustainable. It will be very interesting to see what effect these new players will have.
The second article of interest comes from the Australian edition of Rollonfriday –
http://www.rollonfriday.com/AussieWeek/AustralianNews/tabid/336/Id/739/fromTab/335/Default.aspx
This concerns the on/off/on/off/on/off talks between UK heavyweights Clifford Chance and Australian giants Mallesons. This has been going on for longer than anyone cares to remember but it looks like it could be finally heading up the aisle to the altar. However, the technical arrangements outlined in this article would lead one to believe that it is more likely to end up in a messy divorce than a happy ever after fairytale.
ALB’s New Zealand Report
June 17, 2010 by Damian
Just a link to the ALB’s annual overview of the NZ legal market. It makes for very interesting reading.
I get the feeling that the author was a little frustrated with how evasive some of the participants were, especially when talking about their firm’s finances. This sort of information is readily available overseas but is completely secret over here, for some reason.
The article finishes with some interesting thoughts on the recruitment market where it seems as if employers now realise that it is moving, slowly, towards a candidate short market again.
Happy reading!
http://asia.legalbusinessonline.com/e-magazines/magazine.aspx?id=46175
Are We At A Crossroads?
June 17, 2010 by Damian
One phrase that keeps cropping up when I am talking to clients and candidates at the moment is that it is an ‘interesting time’ in the legal recruitment market. What is happening in the recruitment markets is always ‘interesting’ because it is a good barometer as to the overall health of the economy. In other words, if employers are looking for staff, things must be going pretty well.
Over the vast majority of the 8 years that I have been in recruitment, it is been reasonably easy to discern trends and subsequently give informed and accurate advice and information on what the status of the current job market is. What makes it especially ‘interesting’ at the moment is that no real trends are emerging.
The very general perception is that the market is improving and that is undoubtedly true, thank goodness, but we have to remember that we are coming off the historically low base of the last 18 months or so.
So, are there more jobs around? Yes there are but if you look a little closer, there are still not that many. In private practice, the majority of the ‘big firms’ are still recruiting very selectively, the mid-tier firms do not seem to be recruiting much either and the small firms are mostly still trying to keep the doors open as opposed to taking on new staff. Some firms have a ‘watching brief’ for suitable candidates (which is a good sign) but when it is a ‘watching brief’, the candidates need to be really, really good to be hired.
However, if one took a look at the amount of roles in the public sector, you would be surprised with the amount of opportunities available. Similarly, the number of in-house vacancies has definitely increased in the last 4-6 months. Why this is when the general talk is of cost cutting in the public sector and headcount freezes in the corporate world is an article all of its own so I will dwell no further here apart from to say that for candidates looking for a new role, it would be foolish to rule out the public and in-house sectors at this stage.
So, if we can take it that there are still not a huge amount of roles around, can we take it that there are hundreds of hungry job seekers going after every role? Again, for some roles, ‘yes’ and for others ‘no’. To give an example, a very well known public sector legal team advertised and got nearly 100 applicants for the role. (That is what you get when the job spec can apply to nearly everyone who has a commercial background). However, a very reputable financial institution have been looking for an intermediate solicitor for a number of months now and have not been able to fill the role despite advertising very heavily. Similarly there is a property role in Auckland that the client just cannot fill, despite the perception that there would be loads of property lawyers desperate to get out of their current roles due to lack of work.
So are people going overseas now? Again, yes and no. Some people who have put their OE off for 12-18 months have just decided to pack it all in and take their chances offshore. However, it seems like there is a large group of lawyers who have decided not to move offshore at the moment and are looking to progress their career here and travel offshore during extended holidays or have put it off until a lot later in their career. As such, the trend that, for years, nearly all Kiwi lawyers with 2 years experience will leave to go offshore is just not apparent at the moment.
Clients are also displaying some very interesting behaviour from a recruitment standpoint. Some clients, who historically shied away from using recruitment agencies, are now happy to avail of our services. These clients have taken the view that even though there may be a lot of candidates around, those good candidates are still really hard to find. Others have made the call to keep all of their recruitment in-house, presumably in order to save agency fees, as opposed to ensuring that they get the best candidate around. (Don’t they realise that some of the best candidates are too busy to check job-boards and look at legal magazines and enrol with people like us to do that for them?) What these employers will do when the market inevitably tightens up further will be very, very interesting.
So, all in all, the only trend that I can see is that there is no real trend around. The recruitment market is in a real state of flux with an obvious disconnect between the perception and the reality of its health. Hopefully very soon a trend will emerge where good candidates will find good jobs – that is the sign of a healthy and ‘normal’ recruitment market. I, for one, will be happy to leave these ‘interesting’ times behind.
Interesting NZ Law Firm News!
May 25, 2010 by Damian
The New Zealand legal landscape is not known for providing a huge amount of exciting news but in the last week or so, I have seen a couple of very interesting articles that are definitely worth a read.
The first one concerns the standing of DLA Phillips Fox in NZ and whether the firm is going to split off from DLA Phillips Fox Australia
http://au.legalbusinessonline.com/news/breaking-news/45796.
It also mentions a very juicy bit of gossip about where the NZ arm of the firm may end up.
That story is all speculation but a very interesting factual development has just been announced by Minter Ellison Rudd Watts –
http://lawyersweekly.com.au/blogs/top_stories/archive/2010/05/24/minters-nz-taking-on-uk-work.aspx
Minters in NZ “has uncovered a new revenue stream working with UK-based law firms and clients to assist with their legal work at around half the price of UK-based lawyer rates”.
My first thought was that this was quite a strange move for a leading NZ law firm, given the concerns there are about outsourcing, but on reading the article, the work accounts for less than 1% of the firm’s total revenue and is not in the firm’s core areas. So on reflection, I think that it is a very innovative idea for a NZ law firm, taking advantage of the expertise of the its lawyers and the time difference between NZ and the UK.
I suspect that this will not be the last time that this sort of arrangement happens!
The final article of interest concerns Kensington Swan –
http://au.legalbusinessonline.com/law-firms/new-equity-structure-ruffles-feathers-at-kensington-swan/1001/45857.
These sorts of things happen all the time in the UK, US etc so are hardly news at all over there. However, over here, they create a little more of a ripple.
Sometimes, when talking to people about the legal market in NZ, comments are made about how nothing ever seems to change. Judging by these 3 articles, it seems like there is going to be a bit of a shake up down here. AT LAST!