13/11/2020
LOOKING FOR A NEW JOB? DON'T DESPAIR
The number of partner moves recorded over the past two months is 32 percent lower than the same period last year.
By Matt Byrne 10 November 2020
How did London’s legal recruiters spend their summer? Several, The Lawyer is assured, did little more than top up their tan or indulge in a spot of DIY as their market all but shut down.
And now? New data from recruitment consultant Edwards Gibson confirms that the number of partner moves recorded over the past two months (72) is 32 percent lower than the 106 in the same period last year. When you consider that two firms accounted for 11 of those hires (Goodwin Procter made six and Stephenson Harwood made five), the drop looks even more stark, down 42 percent in 2019.
Yet, before you start worrying that you may never hear from a headhunter again, there’s a break in the clouds with the research showing that the five-year statistical average for the two months is down just 13 percent this year – a sign of the sector’s clamor for the right talent at the right time. The sudden spate of restructuring hires across six City firms (Berkeley Rowe, Brown Rudnick, Mayer Brown, Mishcon de Reya, Osborne Clarke and Stephenson Harwood) provides a case in point.
The Lawyer’s own lateral hiring research, compiled for the first time this year for The Lawyer UK200, follows a similar pattern. London’s 50 largest firms by revenue made 77 partner hires in the nine months to September 2020, compared with 119 over the same time period in 2019, the research reveals. However, this is still above 2018 levels when just 76 partner appointments were made in the nine months to September.
Both 2020 and 2018 were slow years in the lateral market
Dentons has been the most prolific City hirer over the last five years, making 34 laterals, while Latham & Watkins added 25 partners. Fieldfisher and Squire Patton Boggs both brought in 23 partners into their respective City offices between 2015 and 2020. Finance and litigation partners are the most likely to find new homes, with 202 movers in total over the five years helping to reshape the legal landscape.
While partner hires may dominate the headlines, the data reveals the growing fondness firms have for senior associate hires. Some 32 per cent of all moves over the past two months were non-partners moving into partnership, a trend which is gathering momentum and putting pressure on firms to look at how they retain the best would-be partners.
A buoyant recruitment market underpins the legal sector, helping to keep firms focused on what they need to be to attract and retain the best talent. That the sector has maintained momentum despite the pandemic shows firms are ready for the post-Covid era.
