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The incredible shrinking law firm
Top-tier firms are deleveraging, which spells bad news for unemployed graduates, underperforming partners and senior associates vying for partner, a professional services consultant has claimed.
Leanne Mezrani
Ted Dwyer (pictured), principal of Dwyer Consulting, told Lawyers Weekly that top-tier firms are shrinking. The result, he claimed, is fewer opportunities for graduates and limited partnership prospects for senior lawyers.
“The bottom line is major firms are getting smaller [and] they will keep high-performing partners, so they don’t go somewhere else, and only promote really exceptional senior lawyers to partnership.”
This structural change to top-tier firms may have unfortunate consequences for some, but there will also be rewards for talent, said Dwyer. Senior associates who miss out on a partnership role will be financially compensated, while two-to-four-year lawyers will be rewarded to “keep that talent in house”.
Interestingly, the trend is not a response to economic conditions, Dwyer claimed, and the expected post-election boost in corporate activity will not slow down deleveraging efforts.
Rather than make new hires to cope with the increased workflow, top-tier firms will expect their lawyers to work harder, he added.
“I remain bullish about a recovery in the market [but] this does not mean that there will be a recovery in the jobs market in the profession.”
Lawyers Weekly exclusively reported last month that the Melbourne offices of Allens, Baker & McKenzie, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Wood Mallesons, Lander & Rogers and Slater & Gordon hired less than half, and in some cases less than a quarter, of their clerks that were vying for a 2014 graduate position.
A national recruiter, who is receiving dozens of phone calls each week from graduates struggling to find a job, described it as “the worst time in living history to be a law graduate”.
Dwyer added: “There is no doubt the market is flooded with resumes at the moment.”
