Firms no longer training ground for in-house counsel

As law firms become leaner and more competitive, companies will no longer be able to rely on them as a source of experienced commercial lawyers.

Stefanie Garber • 07 July 2015 • NewLaw

Speaking at an Australian Corporate Counsel event, AdventBalance CEO Ken Jagger (pictured) said firms were taking on smaller numbers of graduates, narrowing the pool of lawyers being trained for potential in-house roles.

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“Traditional law firms have been forced by the market to become leaner, at both partner and associate level,” Mr Jagger said. “As a result, the traditional commercial lawyer training model is broken. No longer will the large law firms train significant numbers of lawyers who can then be picked up by in-house teams after five or six years.”

He cited statistics saying the number of partners at top-tier commercial firms had dropped by 25 per cent since 2008.

He also said there were 14,000 law graduates in 2014, but just 813 were employed by top-tier or mid-tier commercial firms.

As a consequence, companies should consider creating their own pipeline for in-house legal staff.

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“Companies may well be forced to look at training their own lawyers, even to the extent of developing their own graduate recruitment programs,” Mr Jagger said.

However, he also believes in-house teams are under pressure to “do more with less”, prompting many to turn to alternative service providers for assistance.

Bob Wednesday, 08 July 2015

Law firms will also no longer be a training ground from which companies like AdventBalance can poach trained lawyers.

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FJB Tuesday, 07 July 2015

There will always be lawyers willing to go in house because they are seeking quality of life and want to get off the time clock grind. I did. 

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GC Tuesday, 07 July 2015

This is simply not true. In-house teams will continue to employ their lawyers from the best quality law firms and/or other in-house teams, irrespective of law firm size. Jagger seems to exclude the rise of large global firms that will continue to employ and train substantial numbers of very good lawyers. If I were cynical, I would suggest that he is trying to promote the services of Advent Balance, which is basically a specialised resourcing/ placement company.

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Mark Skinner Tuesday, 07 July 2015

I wonder if this is really so. Corporates are even more aggressive in cost cutting than large law firms. They often see in house legal teams as expenditure, able to be shed in tighter times. The proper training of corporate lawyers is quite complex. I've really seen a coprprate prepared to even consider this option. My bet is on the old model. 

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