Corporate associates aren’t the only lawyers in high demand right now. Litigation practices are finding themselves in a candidate’s market for recruitment, driven by the new volume of cases compounding a backlog that has only recently begun to be relieved by courts reopening in the second quarter of 2021.

As courts get more comfortable with holding trials virtually, this backlog of cases, combined with the election of a more enforcement-minded presidential administration, is causing the volume of work to outpace the recruitment efforts of litigation boutiques and departments, multiple trial lawyers and legal industry observers say.