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 [...

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