Careers

Legal Jobs Cutbacks - The Summer Associate Scene Looks Icy

Posted on May 13, 2009
Law.com painted a grim picture of the scene for summer associates in a piece today. As one commentator in the article pointed out, the firms have yet to work out that paying high prices for kids out of law school, perceived as ‘training’, is not what they want these days...

Legal Jobs Change, Law Firms Change . . What Else?

Posted on April 30, 2009
Forbes magazine reported today on changes the financial crisis is bringing to the way law firms operate, a story we carried in LawFuel. Apart from the legal jobs crisis, there has been a reawakening of the whole business model law firms operate under, principally the formerly sacrosanct “billable hour” and the partnership structure...

American Law Firms Look Increasingly Shaky In The City

Posted on April 27, 2009
Are US law firms getting tired of the London market in the current climate? Possibly, according to the latest reports from the UK legal media. The Lawyer showed that 18 of the top 30 London firms experienced a fall in revenue - not something American lawyers like at all...

Legal Jobs Continue Sliding - Law Firm Mergers Continue

Posted on April 09, 2009
The news that Baker & McKenzie were laying off staff, including 38 lawyers and 86 paralegals came as little suprising given the general trends in recent times and will come as little surprise to anyone about the law jobs situation generally.  The announcement marks the third round of layoffs for the 3,600-laywer global firm...

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Seeking Legal Jobs - What Should A Poor Boy/Girl Do?

Posted on March 26, 2009
Some advice we liked from an AbovetheLaw article and from Lateral Link’s Gary Cohen was highly pertinent, we thought. If you’re looking for law jobs you need to be as marketable as possible. Here’s some sage advice (we think):   In the current economic environment, columns and blog posts abound advising laid-off attorneys what to do now that they [...

Legal Job Layoffs Just Keep On Coming

Posted on March 11, 2009
The news doesn’t seem to be getting any better on the legal layoff front, with the latest being:  DLA Piper’s UK office putting itself in hot water with the announcement that it was embarking on its second redundancy round with prospects of 30 lawyers and up to 100 support staff in the gun...

The Legal Jobs Downturn - How Bad Can It Get?

Posted on February 25, 2009
Down here, Downunder, the law jobs downturn has barely struck us, while the northern hemisphere’s been swept by the ongoing downturn in legal jobs, associate pay freezes, and the unheard of:  partners being squeezed from firms.  We posted a story on New Zealand lawyers delaying their trips abroad- the famous “OE” (overseas experience) because the [...

Law Jobs Black Day - Friday the 13th Bad Day for Legal Jobs

Posted on February 12, 2009
Friday the 13th is shaping up as a real baddie for lawyers with a number of law firms cutting staff, salaries and just about anythikng else going.  Check the LawFuel story on the most recent Big Law cuts. legal jobs law jobs attorney jobs find a law job

The Legal Job Dress Code - It?s Called Gordon Gekko

Posted on February 09, 2009
All this talk about legal jobs going down the tubes has lawyers understandably worried, as we reported from the Wall Street Journal right here. As legal jobs disappear there has been a distinct move towards the good ‘ol power dressing among even the casual-Friday lawyers who so took to the preppy, casual look...

Legal Jobs Cut At Clifford Chance - More Legal Jobs Hits To Come

Posted on January 08, 2009
The announced legal jobs redundancies at Clifford Chance have set many tongues wagging and fingers too.  What is it all about when a firm like CC actually fires lawyers? What about their rep when things get better? What does this mean for their bottom line and their top salaries...

Solicitors Jobs Get Harder - But Will Things Improve Sooner Than We Think?

Posted on December 27, 2008
New Zealand solicitors’ jobs are certainly getting tougher, with the job-obtaining process lengthening and employers taking their time before making appointments - the market is a buyers’ market but frankly at present it’s clear that law firms are more focused on surviving the recession and restructuring than they are in employing new staff...

New Zealand Legal Jobs Market Tightens- But There?s a Silver Lining

Posted on December 20, 2008
Those who seek a kiwi legal job will be finding it tougher as the country’s slump increases and employers look harder at CVs for legal jobs.  We published an item in LawFuel that showed some pessimistic news, but it also carried a silver lining...

Legal Jobs Better In Exotic Locations Abroad

Posted on November 24, 2008
Legal jobs are becoming more scarce as the recession bites, so Big Law is sending her lawyers abroad - mainly to maintain profits at home. Abu Dhabi, Dubhai, Hong Kong - you name, it far flung legal outpost is attracting lawyers from the US homeland like flies to a light...

Solicitors Jobs Disappear With Eversheds and White & Case Moves

Posted on November 13, 2008
Solicitors jobs are disappearing in the United Kingdom with the latest reports of solicitors jobs disappearing at White & Case and Eversheds. White and Case is apparently cutting around three per cent of its legal and non-legal jobs worldwide, while Eversheds launches its second redundancy consultation this year in a move likely to affect 45 transactional fee [...

Solicitors? Jobs Go At Legal Services Commission - Legal Jobs Woes

Posted on November 05, 2008
Solicitors are among those being fired by the UK Legal Services Commission (LSC) which is set to cut 600 staff and eight processing sites in an effort to cut back on administration expenses in the £2bn legal aid budget, according to LegalWeek.    The cuts, which were announced yesterday (4 November), will see a reduction in headcount [...

Law Firms Being Pressured by Banks in Financial Pressure - Legal Jobs Pressure On Too

Posted on October 21, 2008
The tightening legal market has seen banks in the UK (and we have no doubt in most other jurisdictions) putting the pressure on law firms to get their financial houses into the best order they can.  The Lawyer reports that banks are increasing advising firms there to restructure, sell off or merge...

Law Jobs Might Be Slow . . But Some Lawyers Are Still Hitting Top Dollars

Posted on October 20, 2008
The meltdown has created legal job losses and a shrinking market, to some extent, but the Lawyer and others report that the magic circle law firms are still hitting top dollar when it comes to their charge-out rates.  Hourly partner rates at the UK?s largest firms have hit £750 on average this year despite the [...

NZ Legal Jobs Take A Change For The Worse

Posted on October 16, 2008
We’re preparing a law jobs report at LawFuel for our home market - the very small kiwi market for lawyers - and find that the job growth is declining, but in certain sectors.  The thing about a legal jobs market like New Zealand is that it’s a microcosm of the worldwide market (give or take [...

Losing Legal Jobs At Heller Ehrman

Posted on October 13, 2008
We reported a story from Law.com in LawFuel about the layoffs at Heller Ehrman where 100 staffers at given notice but without the required 60 days’ wages required under California law. The Heller dissolution has been an ongoing train wreck that now unfortunately engulfs the firm in ways that many may well have not contemplated following the [...

Legal Woes and Legal Jobs Both Get A Boost In London

Posted on October 13, 2008
The British Government’s £37 billion bailout  of three major banks has provided a major boost to some of the country’s biggest firms, including Freshfields Bruckhaus, Allen & Overy and Slaughter and May - a welcome if somewhat surprising turn of events in the current financial and legal turmoil besetting world markets...

Kiwi Lawyers Seeking Legal Jobs In London - Or Elsewhere - How The Rules Have Changed

Posted on October 09, 2008
We published a feature in LawFuel about the changing rules for Kiwi or Australian lawyers seeking law jobs in London. The financial meltdown has seen a major ground-shift in the way they should chase their jobs and where those jobs may be. The increasing redundancies in property law firms in particular, together with the issues relating [...

Legal Jobs On The Line - The Ropes & Gray Email

Posted on October 08, 2008
Ropes and Gray is a major law firm and along with so many others is having to talk about the extraordinary times in which we live.  Let’s hope you’re not on the receiving end of these emails, which although encouraging and even occasionally optimistic, the hope is not always something that springs eternal for the youthful [...

Still Want A Legal Job After Winning A Whole Bunch of Money?

Posted on October 07, 2008
Question:  Would you still want a legal job when you’ve just won £7 million in a lottery?  If you’re a feet-on-the-ground Scottish lass light Ianthe Fullagher you’ll carry right on with your plans to establish your own law firm.  She’s planning to do exactly that after sharing in the Euromillions lottery, as reported by the [...

A Secure Legal Job Wanted In Tough Times? Try A British Firm.

Posted on October 02, 2008
Looking for a secure law job with a law firm that’s actually going places in tough times like this?  The American Lawyer reports on the growth of British firms and the fact that hard times like this have seen them succeed through their vast international networks...

Legal Jobs Secure in Australia - Top Year For The Rainmakers

Posted on September 30, 2008
We reported in LawFuel the recent Australian Financial Review figures for Australian law firms, which have had a record year, but are looking for a less prosperous year ahead, along with many other law practices. Top-earning Aussie firm for the year was Mallesons who hit the half billion dollars mark in revenue, well beneath the UK and US [...

NZ Lawyers? London Jobs Just Got Tougher To Score

Posted on September 22, 2008
We wrote in LawFuel about the Lehmans’ meltdown and the effect it had on New Zealanders looking for legal jobs in London.  Undoubtedly the “release” of 145 lawyers from Lehmans, quite apart from those taking their boxed items from other financial institutions is having an effect on legal employment LawFuel?s article show that recruiters believe the [...

Legal Jobs Under Threat With Wall Street Woes, Survey Shows

Posted on September 20, 2008
An increasing number of lawyers are worried that problems on Wall Street will hurt their careers, particularly if a new Above the Law survey is true. Forty-two percent of practicing lawyers responding to a survey through the blog said the recent bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch would harm their careers...

Looking For A Law Job? Heller?s Have A Blog You May Want To Read

Posted on September 18, 2008
When law jobs get tough, the tough get . . well, blogging.  Lots of trouble over at Heller Ehrman and now there’s “Heller Highwater”, a blog that just went up giving survival tips for their lawyers. Since the failure of the merger with Mayer Brown things have not been great for the boys and girls over [...

Okay, So How About Lawyer32.0 For A Title?

Posted on September 15, 2008
There are a lot of fancy job titles around - as we all know only too well - but when it comes to lawyers, what about descriptions like “technical director of legal and corporate affairs” and “senior product manager for intellectual property and licensing”? The descriptions were seeni in a recent product announcement from the monolith...

NZ Legal Jobs Looking A Little Shaky - But You Can Pick Up Your Law Marketability

Posted on September 11, 2008
We’ve been writing a new report on the New Zealand law jobs scene - tentatively entitled ‘Talent Wars and Rocky Roads’.  The thing that’s come through, in part at least, is the fact that the legal scene in our home territory in New Zealand is that talent is not only still the key ingredient necessary [...

How Come Boris Johnson Ignores The Legal Beagles?

Posted on September 10, 2008
London’s colourful mayor Boris Johnson has put London legal noses out of joint by ignoring their representation on London’s International Business Advisory Council, a body set up to improve London’s role as a place to live and work.  Legal work is a major economic contributor to London’s economy, but lawyers themselves are miffed at missing [...

Legal Jobs For Women - Smashing The Glass Ceiling

Posted on September 08, 2008
There’s been a lot of talk in recent times about women in law, but in the UK anyway, there are more women lawyers breaking into the ranks of the top firms, according to the  The Lawyer UK 200 Annual Report. The?findings?are?in ­contrast to a report from the UK ­Equality and Human Rights ­Commission, which last week found [...

Big Legal Job + Big Star Client = Big Publicity

Posted on August 31, 2008
Not too many people had heard of Fiona Shackleton until she recently had a client come in the door called Paul McCartney.  Now, according to The Lawyer she’s the biggest name in English law - or was over the past year.  Over the past 12 months Shackleton, a partner at Payne Hicks Beach in London, had [...

Legal Jobs One Thing - But What Do The Lawyers Think of the Poor?

Posted on August 26, 2008
A recent article in The Guardian took a look at wealth attitudes and, of course, included a section on lawyers which was, of course, reasonably unflattering.  Although the lawyers tended to come out better than the bankers. In the extract printed on Monday, the authors profess surprise and disdain at the partners? ignorance about how the [...

NZ Legal Jobs - Are they as easy as they used to be to come by?

Posted on August 21, 2008
During the completion of our NZ Legal Jobs report (coming so soon it will make your nose bleed), we talked to a number of recruiters and others and one thing became apparent.  The tightening law market in the UK and elsewhere does not necessarily mean there will be a tsunami of returning lawyers to the [...

Seeking A Law Job With One Of Those American Outfits in London?

Posted on August 19, 2008
It’s generally thought that US firms are tougher and harder-nosed on their employees than their UK counterparts, but a recent study by The Lawyer shows that’s not necessarily the case, with retention rates for qualifying trainees being 100% in some cases...

?USBs Get Degrees? - How Hard Is It To Get A Law Degree, Anyhow?

Posted on August 18, 2008
We received an article at LawFuel yesterday from an Otago University law student, entitled “USB’s Get Degrees” - catchy, eh?  The theme of the article was that law students can get degrees - and good grades - by adopting a few tactics that see them fail to attend class, examine prior papers and - of [...

Women In Law - Why Women Leave Law Jobs, And Others Don?t

Posted on August 13, 2008
Working Mother  has announced its second annual ‘Best Law Firms For Women’ list, showing that although the playing field is not yet level its getting better.  The stats show nearly four of five female associates leave their firm in the first five years...

Kiwi Lawyers Abroad - What Sort of Legal Job Can They Expect?

Posted on August 06, 2008
The Big OE (overseas experience) is what many New Zealand lawyers expect, but the credit crunch has changed a lot of that for those from Australia and New Zealand who travel to the big markets, particularly Britain.  LawFuel reported on the scene looking at the effect of the well documented ?credit crunch?  and what it [...

Women Leaving The Law? How Come? And What Can Be Done About It?

Posted on August 04, 2008
The whole issue of women in law is a persistant one, particularly given the rapid rise of women graduates and women lawyers who enter the profession only to then ‘disappear’ some place.  Where?  Well, in an article from the NY Law Journal, that we published here, the stats for the US show that women represent only [...

Are Aussie & Kiwi Lawyers Heading Home? We Don?t Think So

Posted on August 01, 2008
Talk of a major downturn in the legal market has many law firms in Australia and New Zealand rubbing their hands together at the prospect of all those Gen-Y, overpaid London ex-pats at last turning their heads towards home.  Likely?  No, we don’t think so...

More Legal Job Layoffs Stateside - Cadwaladers? Go Into Round Two

Posted on July 31, 2008
More layoffs at Cadwalader’s shows the continuation of the credit crunch for law firms in the States (and elsewhere). The fact is, a great chunk of work - mortgage-backed securities - has evaporated and firms like Cadwaladers and others are not facing just a short term ‘blip’, but rather a major shakeout in their workbase...

Don?t Worry. Be Happy. Is It True In Most Legal Jobs?

Posted on July 28, 2008
Happiness and the law.  Do they mix?  Or are they a case of never the twain meeting?  A post in the JD Bliss blog reports on Stephen Ellis, a partner at the Cleveland office of Tucker, Ellis & West, a 150-lawyer full-service firm.  A happy–and successful–lawyer who has spent 36 years in the profession, Ellis challenges [...

Worried About Your Legal Job? Here?s What the CEOs Have To Say

Posted on July 17, 2008
The credit crunch and other issues have occupied the minds of lawyers in recent months, but what does it mean for law firms in terms of the outlook?  LegalWeek published an outlook from top firms managing partners.  A sampling:  Tim Jones, Freshfields - ?Litigation is a big practice area right now...

Being Paid For Taking A Law Job . . The New Internet Way

Posted on June 30, 2008
Two new Internet law recruitment sites offer bonus payments to lawyers who sign up to their listed jobs.

Life After The Big Law Job Letdown

Posted on June 26, 2008
The new blog from former Paul Hastings associate Shinyung Oh whose email on life in the firm went web-wide, big time.

A Quality Law Degree In Two Years? Come On.

Posted on June 22, 2008
The ABA lifted a requirement that law degrees be over six semesters right back in 2004 - a major deal that lead to the odd legal institution instituting their two-year law degrees. But now, a more esteemed name in legal education, NorthWestern University has entered the fray with it’s two-year degree...

Climate Change Law Jobs Heat Up

Posted on June 07, 2008
Credit crunching and other issues may have slowed down the growth of firms in the financial sector, but the ever-increasing range of new opportunities includes climate change law.  Carbon trading, new climate regulations, environmental iniatives of all types have created a plethora of new opportunities, which younger lawyers are primed to seize...

When Law Jobs Go Bad - Sentencing Melvyn Weiss

Posted on May 27, 2008
It’s kind of unusual for a defendant to file his own sentencing memo to a court, but when the defendant is class action guru-turned-defendant Mel Weiss well, anything can happen.  The WSJ Law Blog published the memo, which carried more than 275 letters attesting to the good-turned-bad lawyer’s good deeds...

Law Jobs Go At DC Attorney General?s Office

Posted on May 24, 2008
Many may think that public law is for whimps and not for the real stuff, well in the case of the Washington DC Attorney General’s office the plan is to transform the office into a “first rate law firm” - starting with what all first rate law firms do and firing lawyers...

Pregnancy, Adoption And Law Jobs That Recognize Them

Posted on May 20, 2008
Sullivan & Cromwell started the ball rolling - their generous (18 paid weeks’ maternity leave) started in July and now other firms are joining the queue to be nice to mothers.  That generosity hasn’t always been the case, of course, but the work/life thing is catching and as American Lawyer point out, similar policies extend to adoptive [...

Law Job Layoffs, Pregnancy And Unwanted Emails - A Paul Hastings PR Nightmare

Posted on May 09, 2008
The brouhaha over Paul Hastings associate Shinyung Ho has been all over the law blogs this week and points up some of the key issues for not only pregnant “life stylers” seeking a life along with a law careers, but also the way large firms handle layoffs...

Oprah?s Lawyer - Now What Sort of Law Job Would That Be?

Posted on May 01, 2008
Celebrities with one name are pretty big - that’s why they have one name - but what about the lawyers who act for them or, in Oprah’s case, the Chicago attorney she found because she liked his tie. William L Becker got the call in 1988 because Oprah had been searching for a lawyer...

Law Partnerships - And A New Law Career Path For Some Firms

Posted on May 01, 2008
The Lawyer have a story on the new partners entering the fray - ah, we mean partnerships - in the UK.  Hammonds take the cake for the most new partners, as you can see from The Lawyer’s pic, below.  The firm now has nine per cent of its total partner as ‘new chums’, compared to most [...

Looking For Work-Life Balance? Then A Law Job May Be TOOO Much

Posted on April 27, 2008
The good old State Bar of New York has come out with a work/life balance report that shows that the holy grail of work/life balance is as elusive as ever, with lawyers missing out on the chance to play a part not only in the community, but also in their own families...

Top Law Jobs At Top Places To Work

Posted on January 23, 2008
Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Places To Work include five US law firms - Arnold and Porter (Staffers get 12 weeks paid maternity leave and profit sharing of 7.5% of salary. The less you make, the less you pay for health-insurance premiums.) Alston & Bird (Both the legal and nonlegal staff get super benefits, including 90 days of paid [...

The One Company You Don?t Want To Work For - According To Google?s Eric Schmidt

Posted on January 21, 2008
So you want to work for Google?  Okay, you don?t want to work for Google necessarily, but you would like to know what their top man, Eric Schmidt?s advice might be if you?re looking for anything from a legal job to a loafing job at a go-nowhere corporation? Well Sheryl Sandberg joined Google in 2001 [...

Retiring Rich - The Lawyers From Clifford Chance

Posted on January 16, 2008
Retirement looms for increasing numbers of baby boomers and the legal media in the UK have covered moves by Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance to move its retirement practice in line with the new British age discrimination law - something larger firms are perhaps more aware of than ever with age, sex, race and religious [...

Times Are Getting Tougher On The Law Jobs Front

Posted on January 13, 2008
We’ve predicted tougher times ahead on the legal jobs front for a little while - hardly an act of mind-blowing prescience given the credit crunch - but it’s beginning to get ugly with layoffs and belt tightening all round with some of the major law firms...

Gay-Friendly Law Firm Wins Top Place Among UK?s Top 100

Posted on January 09, 2008
Gay pride is not something we hear a huge amount about these days with lawyers, notwithstanding the occasional lawsuits (like Cravath’s faced last year).  However Pinsent Masons, the UK lawyers, are positively bursting with gay pride at being named by gay rights group Stonewall as the most ‘gay friendly’ lawyers in the UK, as announced [...

Law Jobs For Charity - Giving Lawyers At Christmas

Posted on January 07, 2008
Lawyers may not enjoy the best of reputations among the non-legal public, but to give them their due they probably do more than many professions in terms of not only pro bono work, but also outright charity.  Tales abound of law firms that make charitable donations or organize charity at Christmas time in particular...

Women In Law - What Should Law Firms Be Doing To Keep Them

Posted on January 04, 2008
The JD BLiss blog discussed the launch of a new website for the Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success, announced by Lauren Stiller Rickleen who, for those who don’t know, is the author of Ending the Gauntlet which identifies the numerous roadblocks confronting women in law firms...

Law Blog Winners At The ABA Journal Awards

Posted on January 03, 2008
America’s most popular blawg (according to the drones at the ABA Journal) is QuizLaw, an entertaining take on legal developments, written by bi-coastal lawyers with inside and usually amusingly informative views on the law.  The final vote went down to Overlawyered and QuizLaw with the latter taking the title after a variety of what they term [...

Landing the Legal Job You Want - How hard can that really be?

Posted on January 03, 2008
We read an entry in the “Law & More” blog about recent goings-on from the Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report about the latter’s law school rankings and their rele/irrelevance to those seeking a decent legal job...

2008 And Legal Jobs Ahead - How Tight Will It Be?

Posted on December 29, 2007
International upheaval following the Bhutto assasination, Mid-East issues, rising oil prices, the sub-prime crisis - what does all this mean for legal jobs in the year ahead?  We preduct (and the end-of-year prediction is as, well, predictable as the new year hangover) that times will get tougher for a lot of firms and the good [...

Why Are Lawyers So Depressed? Can It Be Just Legal Jobs?

Posted on December 27, 2007
An interesting note in the WSJ Law Blog dealt recently with the “D” word as it applies to lawyers.  Christmas is a tough time for many - loneliness, a sense of worthlessness and who knows what else? - but can these apply at this or any other time to highly paid attorneys? It’s a major issue, [...

Legal Job Lawsuit Seeks Redress For Religious Discrimination

Posted on December 26, 2007
Discrimination lawsuits have become more prevalent in the legal profession as the legal environment becomes both more competitive and also lawyers become more assertive over their rights, be they age, sex or, in the case of a former Allen & Overy associate, religious...

Facebook for Lawyers - The Whys and Wherefores Explained

Posted on December 23, 2007
We’ve written before about Facebook and lawyers and the various issues arising there, but an interesting post on the Between Lawyers blog refers readers to a blog post from Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy in the Kennedy-Mighell Report where the authors provide a podcast on lawyers’ use of Facebook...