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Will winter bring warmth in-house?
Most Australian companies have had a turbulent 12 months and the common perception is that the in-house job market has all but dried up, but as the second half of 2009 approaches, Brian Rollo…
Lawyers Weekly
Most Australian companies have had a turbulent 12 months and the common perception is that the in-house job market has all but dried up, but as the second half of 2009 approaches, Brian Rollo looks at the reality for in-house lawyers
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Since late 2008, scores of leading businesses have undergone significant restructures and made multiple rounds of high-profile redundancies, particularly in the banking and finance sector.
Telco, property and retail companies have largely stopped hiring, although some corporate sectors - such as government, outsourcing and energy/commodities - have maintained respectable recruitment levels.
Demand for specific legal skills has also changed. For example, transactional/corporate positions have now turned into in-house litigation, regulatory and employment roles. There are still traditional in-house corporate roles available, but they are relatively scarce and generally direct replacements for existing staff, rather than growth positions.
Surprisingly, there have been some tentative indications over the last four to six weeks that some job markets are thawing, with a general increase in the number of jobs available, albeit in certain sectors.
It's also worth noting that the majority of in-house redundancies happened just before or shortly after the Christmas period when the market was most volatile. Private practice has suffered more since the beginning of 2009 as it feels the knock-on effect of reduced legal spend by corporate clients, but the expectation is that if growth returns to the corporate sectors, then the firms will follow suit.
So where does this leave lawyers who are looking for work in-house? The educated guess would be that the market is still in a slump, but slowly improving. Job flow is still nowhere near traditional seasonal levels, despite recent improvements which have yet to be proved sustainable.
Competition for jobs is also still fierce for most roles; however redundancies are reducing, and the real economy seems more stable than six months previously.
You may also find that potential employers seem focused on getting exact "paper-fit" candidates when previously there was more flexibility, which will affect your ability to reinvent yourself in a different area of law. This is the inevitable result of employers attempting to make recruitment more cost-effective in the current climate.
The slightly better news is that there are still some good in-house roles available, and the signs are just beginning to look better than they have for some time
Brian Rollo is manager of in-house financial services at Taylor Root.
