After a reasonably patchy legal recruitment market in recent times, the last three months have seen a welcome increase in legal roles in Melbourne.

Last year the majority of roles continued to be between four-to-eight years’ PAE. With tight recruitment budgets prevailing, many organisations sought to increase headcount by taking on lawyers on a contract basis. Whilst many of those contracts were extended or made permanent, with some with fixed terms running as long as two years, they were becoming more widely accepted as a commercial reality. The lion’s share of emerging legal and compliance roles have been in the financial services space, not surprising given that it is such a highly-regulated sector. Since the introduction of regulations such as FOFA, FATCA and My Super, financial services institutions continue to recruit to keep up with the demands of the regulators.

The second half of 2014 has seen a marked improvement in positions available at the senior level across corporate/commercial, energy & resources and M&A in Melbourne. Our colleagues in Sydney felt the shift sooner, with more activity in the investment banking space, in particular. Our London office has reported the highest levels of activity for several years post- GFC and the Middle East markets are gearing up for the 2022 World Cup, which is also opening up opportunities for Australian-qualified construction lawyers.

Closer to home, recent government investment into Melbourne infrastructure has led to more project and PPP work which we expect increase in 2015. Overall, the legal in-house market, domestically and globally, is growing and many in-house departments seem to be looking forward to the prospect of making some long awaited hires over the course of the next year.

If you are thinking about making your next move this is a good time to register your interest and talk to us about your job search.

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Tara Sacks (pictured) is a senior consultant at Taylor Root.

Copy and image supplied by Taylor Root.