It is not that long ago – two years at most – that we were immersed in the doom and gloom of the downturn. There was little to be chipper about in a legal services market. Front page stories in the legal trade magazines were all about redundancies and compromise agreements -lawyers and support staff in all types of firm feared for their future. It seemed to be an accepted feature of the legal market at the time. Top line revenues were dwindling, the cost base was at best static and the only route to acceptable profitability was through cuts and rationalisation.
Of course, this was merely law firms being sensible – behaving like commercial organisations. At the same time, everyone acknowledged that the downturn was temporary – firms needed to ensure that they protected their employer brand. If redundancies were on the agenda, they should at least be handled sensitively as, sure as eggs were eggs, firms would be hiring again before too long. At that time, the same old dynamics of lack of quality people to fill roles would return again.
