While it was bound to happen sooner or later, opinions differ as to just how bad the credit crunch is. But it is generally agreed that the City is taking something of a kicking; for City lawyers this has raised some valid concerns about the safety of their current role.
With the dotcom crash but a distant memory, in recent years we have seen demand for corporate and finance lawyers at an all-time high as the deals continued to roll in. The City was at its most robust in recent history; the rise of activity in the private equity market and the innovative finance structures that dominated the market dictated a clear trend for increased specialisation. In larger City practices, it has become the case that many candidates have been pushed, not always willingly, towards a narrower remit. For example, corporate lawyers being herded towards a specialism in private equity or public company work, or finance lawyers being steered from early in their careers towards a particular expertise in acquisition finance, securitisation or collaterised debt obligations. All this is well and good when clients – and as such the market – demand skills sharpened to a pointy end, but what happens when the tide inevitably turns and there are those stuck in a department whose workflow has all but dried up?
