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Part
of a profession with a reputation of being overly cautious at times, Canadas
legal community appears enthusiastically optimistic about the economy, at
least when it comes to hiring, according to the results of a new study by
legal staffing company, Robert Half Legal.
The
survey, conducted by Pennsylvania-based International Communications Research
(ICR) for the Robert Half Legal Hiring Index found that half (50 per cent) of
the 150 lawyers interviewed by phone plan to hire full-time staff in the
third quarter of 2011. Only one per cent anticipated reductions in personnel.
The net 49 per cent projected increase in hiring activity represents a six
percentage point rise from the second quarter forecast for 2011.
Most
of the hiring is expected to take place at law firms.
The
results are found in Robert Halfs quarterly Professional Employment
Report launched last year which
involved 75 lawyers at law firms with 20 or more employees and 75 corporate
lawyers at companies with 1,000 or more employees.
A
whopping 91 per cent of lawyers surveyed were confident in their
organizations prospects for growth between July and September.
In
terms of hiring, almost all the respondents 96 per
cent said they would most likely hire lawyers, followed
by legal secretaries and assistants (56 per cent), law clerks (39 per cent),
paralegals (35 per cent) and legal administrators (18 per cent).
While
the numbers almost sound too good to be true, they are supported by the
flurry of activity at Robert Half Legal, where recruiters can hardly keep
up with the demand for lawyers and other staff in Canada, said Canadian
regional manager Anne Edmonds, who hasnt seen such high demand for staffing
since she joined the company six years ago.
Weve
had such drastic layoffs over the last two years that firms and corporate
legal departments were a little gun-shy and didnt want to hire people and
then lay them off. But business has picked up and its a different landscape,
so they now are confident that they have the capacity to bring people on
full-time.
Canadian
confidence outpaces the results of a similar survey conducted in the U.S.
There, 84 per cent of lawyers expressed confidence in their organizations
ability to expand this quarter (up three points from the previous quarter)
and 35 per cent said they planned to add legal staff in the next three
months. Five per cent plan reductions in personnel, resulting in a net 30 per
cent projected increase in hiring activity a one
percentage point rise from the second quarter forecast for 2011.
Much
of the hiring is also expected to occur at law firms and
bankruptcy and foreclosure (19 per cent of responses) is the practice area
predicted to see the most growth this summer in the U.S., where economic
recovery has come slower than it has in Canada.
Other
practice areas in the U.S. expected to experience growth during the third
quarter are litigation (17 per cent of responses) and general business and
commercial law (16 per cent). Lawyers (93 per cent of responses), legal
secretaries and assistants (32 per cent) and paralegals (20 per cent) are the
top three positions in demand south of the border. Law clerks and legal
administrators rounded out the list at 19 per cent and 12 per cent
respectively.
According
to Charles Volkert, executive director of Robert Half Legal in Menlo Park,
Calif., law firms are rebuilding their support teams and are hiring
experienced legal assistants and paralegals able to add immediate value and
perform multiple job functions.
In
a news release, he noted that the most marketable support professionals in
the U.S. have backgrounds in litigation and e-discovery, as well as
experience in document management.
The
U.S. study was based on 200 telephone interviews with lawyers: 100 of them at
firms with 20 or more employees and 100 at companies with 1,000 or more
employees.
Meanwhile,
in the Canadian survey, 44 per cent of the respondents identified corporate
law as the practice area expected to experience the most growth over the next
three months. Included in that is securities law, said Edmonds, who pointed
out that Robert Half Legal is receiving weekly requests for lawyers or law
clerks with experience in corporate and securities law.
Placing
second at 22 per cent of
responses is litigation, which is driving the hiring of
associates, law clerks, paralegals and legal secretaries with experience in
labour relations and employment, insurance defence and commercial litigation.
Robert
Half Legal expects corporate law and litigation to remain among the top
practice areas in Canada this year.
Hiring
in the area of foreclosure and insolvency is also expected to rise and
represented five per cent of the responses. In addition, intellectual
property (IP) was cited as a strong practice area in Toronto and, less so, in
Ottawa. An increase in patent filings and applications is prompting law firms
and corporations to hire IP lawyers, patent agents and paralegals with three
to five years of experience in this area.
Overall,
though, lawyers have been more in demand since the third quarter of last year
than they were in 2008, 2009 and the beginning of 2010 when we couldnt
place lawyers to save our lives, said Edmonds.
However,
while the job market appears to be competitive, 72 per cent of the lawyers
polled in Canada found it somewhat or very challenging to find skilled
legal professionals. (In the U.S., 51 per cent of the lawyers reported having
the same difficulty.)
The
lawyers in demand are the ones that have a book of business or who have done
business development, explained Edmonds. The interview process is slow
moving and much longer than it used to be. Law firms and corporate legal
departments are more thorough and picky in terms of who theyre bringing
on and, if theyre looking to hire someone for a
corporate law group, a candidate will have to have experience in mergers and
acquisitions, or securities and litigation, or both for example.
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