31 Percent of Lawyers Surveyed Expect to Make Legal Hires In the Next Three Months
A survey of 200 lawyers at law firms and corporations found that 31 percent expect to hire legal personnel in the first quarter of the year.
The survey by Robert Half Legal shows an increase in expected legal hiring over the last quarter, when 25 percent of the respondents expected to add legal jobs, the Washington Post reports.
The respondents indicated they are most likely to hire lawyers (88 percent), paralegals (39 percent) and legal secretaries (35 percent), according to a press release. The areas with the highest expected growth are bankruptcy, foreclosure, litigation, and labor and employment.
Law firms continue to focus on hiring senior and partner-level lawyers with substantial books of business and expertise in high-demand practice areas, according to Robert Half executive director Charles Volkert. Corporations are adding legal staff in an attempt to bring more legal work in-house.
Four percent of the lawyers surveyed expected to cut legal jobs, for a net increase of 27 percent. The lawyers surveyed worked at law firms with 20 or more employees and corporations with 1,000 or more employees.
