While some reports suggest there has been little activity in the legal recruitment market during the past four months, where strategy is involved, not all law firms and companies alike have not rescinded planned expansion and headcount. Sentiment is, however, still fragile and conflicting reports of impending recovery and of a worse economic climate to come do not help. Ultimately it will be confidence in the markets that triggers sustained recovery and an indication of the level of confidence should come later this year.
Although very different from the current economic slowdown, I draw comparisons with the major recession of the early ’90s. Then, the view taken by many firms was to cut large numbers of assistants and associates in market-driven areas such as commercial property. This resulted in a shortage of these lawyers a few years later when the market recovered.
