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‘Sign-on bonuses’ ramping up in firms’ attraction strategy
As competition continues to climb in the Australian legal market, more firms are offering up new incentives to nab lateral talent, according to the director of a recruitment consulting company.
Emma Musgrave
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Burgess Paluch director Paul Burgess revealed some of the trends he’s currently seeing play out in legal recruitment.
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One of these, he noted, is a distinct change in the way some firms are securing lateral lawyers.
“Sign-on bonuses are being used more regularly by some firms to attract lateral talent, either where their current parity levels are not competitive with offers being made by competitor firms or where they are keen to show strong interest in a particular applicant,” Mr Burgess said.
“… Switched-on law firms are speeding up and streamlining their hiring processes to ensure that they don’t lose lawyers to other offers. Psych tests are falling out of favour, and partners and key decision makers are being brought into first round interviews so firms can position themselves to acquire in demand lawyers.”
Further, Mr Burgess also shed some light on what some of the main roles law firms are currently recruiting for.
“We have had a lot of demand in corporate, property, projects, employment law and insurance. The largest firms have been particularly keen on projects lawyers given the level of investment in projects in Australia at present. They have also been hiring in M&A, an area that is strong across firms of all sizes,” he disclosed.
“There have been some interesting shifts, for example, insurance practices hiring employment lawyers to undertake employers' liability insurance work, traditionally an area that was contained in employment groups.
“Another shift has been an increase in commercial litigation demand, in some cases fuelled by specific matters, such as the royal commission, and also the rise of class actions.”
Looking ahead over the next 12 months, Mr Burgess said he expects ‘corporate law’ will be the most searched for job on his company’s online database.
“There are continued shortages locally, in New Zealand, and also in Hong Kong,” he explained.
“If London continues to improve and we have demand rising for Australians and Kiwis there, then we will have a loss of local talent combined with a lessening of candidate flow from New Zealand, as they bypass Australia and head to the UK.
“In a market that is already short of strong M&A lawyers, this could put a lot of pressure on an already stressed system.”
