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Legal Secretaries Bearing Brunt of Recession

By Lynne DeVenny

Robert Half Legal's 2010 Salary Guide is now available, and it's no surprise that legal professional salaries won't experience much growth in 2010.

To get your free copy of the guide, click here. If you're doing your homework regarding what you can expect for next year's salary, either as a currently employed paralegal or someone seeking paralegal work, this would be a valuable addition to your information arsenal. But keep in mind that salaries in your area are affected by what the market will bear, and that there may be a significant difference in rural areas and smaller firms.

Per Robert Half Legal's press release, the guide "is used extensively by law firms and corporate legal departments nationwide to determine appropriate compensation levels for employees. In addition, government agencies and educational institutions rely on the guide for current data on salaries and hiring trends in the legal field."

According to The Lawyers Weekly interview with Jonathan Veale, division director of permanent placement at Robert Half Legal's Toronto office, we haven't seen an end to downsizing by big law firms, but mid-size firms are faring better.

Bankruptcy, litigation, family law, personal injury law, and labor and employment law are still going strong, which is consistent with The Paralegal Voice's "New Hiring Trends in the Paralegal World" podcast at Legal Talk Network, featuring Charles Volkert, Executive Director of Robert Half Legal.

Veale told The Lawyers Weekly:

...By far, however, the brunt of the recession is being borne by support staff at law firms, in particular legal secretaries.?

In the past, firms often aimed for one legal secretary per lawyer, now it?s more common for one legal secretary to support two or three lawyers,? Veale says. Law clerks have done better than legal secretaries during this recession since they can add value on both the administrative and financial side, according to Veale, as they can bill their time to a file.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many paralegals and legal assistants are also supporting more lawyers than they have in the past. It's also a given that if lawyers can expect a dip in salaries, so can the rest of the staff.

Also not surprising are Robert Half International's 2010 salary guides indicating that related fields are also affected by the recession, with "starting salaries expected to remain pretty much flat in accounting and finance, information technology and administrative fields."

Have you taken Practical Paralegalism's survey at the sidebar, "Are You Planning to Ask for a Raise Anytime Soon?"

Related Posts: Robert Half Legal's New White Paper: Law Offices Face New Challenges; New Hiring Trends in the Paralegal World (with links to more career and specialty information)

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on November 22, 2009 (boomark / email).