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‘Busy year’ expected for in-house talent, recruiter says
Newly created roles and “pent-up demand” for movement may well give rise to a flurry of recruitment activity for law departments nationwide, one recruiter has suggested.
Jerome Doraisamy
In a recent conversation with Lawyers Weekly, G2 Legal Australian director Daniel Stirling said he is “anticipating a busy year” in the in-house hiring market.
When asked how much he expects law departments to invest in talent in 2025 – particularly against the backdrop of increased pressure to better utilise technology to overcome workload pressures – Stirling mused that it is still early days for the new year, “but [we] have already seen several newly created in-house roles arise”.
“Most law department heads [will] prioritise getting the right talent over anything else within their team, as investing in new tech won’t help if you don’t have the right people using it,” he said.
“As ever, there is a balancing act between permanent and interim headcount, external legal spend and legal tech that will look quite different for each company and team.”
Regarding the number of permanent lawyers within each team, Stirling continued, “they are often seen as the backbone to the success to the GC’s vision, as they are the ones who know the business best and can help to implement that vision”.
In addition to the creation of new roles, he said, there is also “some pent-up demand” in in-house legal circles for lawyers looking to move, which he predicts will create opportunities.
“They are looking to move for a range of reasons, including career progression, flexibility/hybrid working (with some companies increasing numbers of days in the office) and remuneration,“ he said.
“As such, it is important for leaders to focus on retention of their best employees as well making their offering more attractive to new potential team members.”
The comments follow the release of the 2024 Axiom Australian In-House Legal Department Survey Report, which – as reported by Lawyers Weekly late last year – showed that the 2025 outlook for staff retention “appears even more grim” than it did last year, when “many” in-house lawyers reported being unhappy and looking to leave their current roles.
As Axiom noted at the time, job stress and burnout rates are lower Down Under than in the United States, but there are other factors impacting the overall satisfaction rates of in-house professionals, and as a result, “your legal talent might have one foot out the door”.
Stirling’s predictions also follow new research from Consilio, whose fifth annual survey – Beyond the Gridlock: Overcoming the Challenges of Modern Legal Work – found, as reported earlier this month, that three in five (60 per cent) professionals are prioritising smaller, operational reinventions to bring about process improvements that combat their ever-escalating workload.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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