Legal sector looks to retraining

Sunday Business Post - Recruitment Section - Apr 26 2009

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Earlier this month, Dublin legal firm William Fry announced 17 redundancies, while in February, 45 jobs were lost at A&L Goodbody, another ‘big five’ legal firm.

Arthur Cox is also seeking voluntary redundancies from up to 20 secretarial and support staff. A similar number of qualified solicitors have left the company so far this year.

Legal firms around the country are implementing similar plans, according to David Byrnes, legal, tax and public practice manager with Brightwater Selection.

‘‘It is fair to say that the economic downturn has affected the entire legal recruitment market,” Byrnes said. ‘‘Unfortunately, it has affected small, medium and large legal firms, in-house legal people and the public sector as well. It is a particularly difficult time right now.”

Dave Riordan, a senior recruitment consultant with Careers Register, said jobs were on the line across the board.

‘‘A lot of legal firms are cutting numbers, and practices are scaling back their staff and not keeping on newly qualified staff,” said Riordan. ‘‘They are also offering early retirement to senior management and senior partners. Recruitment freezes are going on in many firms at the same time.”

Property and finance
For most firms facing difficulties, the collapse of the property market was a major catalyst, said Cliodhna Dineen, head of law at Griffith College Cork.

‘‘A huge amount of the work done and the fees gained by law firms in recent years would have been in property-related areas,” said Dineen. ‘‘As the property boom has gone, conveyancing work has gone with it. That has been the biggest problem for solicitors’ offices throughout the country. That is where a lot of employees have been let go or had their hours reduced.”

Unprecedented turbulence in banking and related sectors has added to the woes of legal employers nationwide.

‘‘Practices which were servicing the financial services industry have be en badly affected,” said Riordan. ‘‘Banking and funds have been the worst hit in the last six months in particular.”

Salary cuts
Accompanying the job cuts announced by William Fry and Goodbody were further plans by both firms to reduce pay for remaining staff. Riordan said salary cuts were widespread throughout the sector as firms sought to manage costs.”

Salaries have only moved downwards,” he said. ‘‘Towards the end of last year, O’Donnell Sweeney cut salaries of senior staff by 15 per cent, and cuts of between 10 and 15 per cent have been fairly typical in other larger legal firms.

‘‘Most legal employers are cutting salaries and looking at other ways of retaining staff, and different working hours and working arrangements are being looked at.”


Too many candidates
There are many more qualified legal professionals looking for work than there are positions available, said Byrnes.

‘‘Due to the number of firms that have had to let staff go and the sheer number of people who have qualified, there are a lot more candidates than jobs at present,” he said.

Unemployed candidates have scaled back on salary demands in the hope of securing new roles.

‘‘People see that they have to be very reasonable and flexible with their salary demands,” he said. ‘‘I have seen people at senior associate or just below partner level taking €20,000 to €25,000 hits on their salary just to get a job.

‘‘These are very good people, but because of the area they have worked in, it is difficult for them to get a job if they are not flexible on salary.”

New candidates
Newly qualified solicitors are particularly vulnerable in an increasingly difficult labour market.

‘‘I met a recently qualified solicitor - a fantastic candidate, but she is on €22,000 a year,” said Riordan. ‘‘About a year ago, she would be moving to €50,000 to €60,000, but as it stands, she is just being let go. That is typical for a lot of newly qualified solicitors.”

Riordan said a lot of highly qualified legal professionals were finding it difficult to secure new jobs.

‘‘A lot of solicitors have trained for years to get to where they are, and it is very frustrating for them to not actually have the tools and skills to find that next job as quickly as they would imagine a highly qualified person would,” he said.

‘‘We are advising them that it will take a bit longer to find the right role at the moment.” The decline in property-related work has impacted demand for solicitors with skills and experience in the area.

‘‘It creates huge challenges for individuals, because in most cases the legal professionals would have specialised,” said Byrnes. ‘‘For guys who went into some of the ‘big five’ or other law firms and just did property work throughout their career, it is very difficult.

They do not have to go right back to the start, but there will definitely have to be an element of retraining.”

Study options
Dineen said the majority of students completing law degrees this year did not expect to secure work with legal firms upon graduating.

‘‘The mood among our final year students is that most will continue studying and pursue a masters in law or other postgraduate courses in other areas,” she said. ‘‘They see that there are not that many jobs out there, so they keep studying and gaining more academic qualifications. That is the consensus around all third-level institutions at the moment.”

Byrnes said the number of candidates opting to study law had increased significantly in recent years, leading to a glut of supply in a cooling market.

‘‘The numbers going into Blackhall had increased significantly in recent years,” he said. ‘‘A lot of people are coming out qualified at a time when the market is not particularly buoyant.”

Newly qualified solicitors who cannot secure work can opt to continue their study, move into other markets or emigrate in search of work.

‘‘Further training and retraining has become the chosen avenue for many newly qualifieds, while some newly qualified solicitors are trying to offer services out of a home practice,” said Riordan. ‘‘The Law Society Gazette had an article recently on opportunities in Australia, China, the Middle East and Norway, which highlighted how far newly qualified solicitors are looking.”

Flexible skills
Candidates with a good law degree have the benefit of a range of career options requiring similar skills.

‘‘There are so many areas that you can branch into from a law degree,” Dineen said.

‘‘Not only does the degree train you in the academic side of the law, but you also learn so many essential skills such as critical analysis, problem solving and that type of thing. Those skills are invaluable in any profession or industry, whether journalism, banking or any form of business.”

In-house opportunities
Some opportunities do exist for legal professionals with the right skills and experience.

‘‘There is more activity in in house legal roles than in practice,” Byrnes said. ‘‘This is due to simple economics, as a lot of companies now are looking to have people in-house who maybe cost less than using specialist consultants from a legal firm.

‘‘Until recently, companies were looking for the best advice and they were willing to pay for it. Now they are looking for a bit more value for money.”

Byrnes said increasing regulation and compliance in financial services and other sectors could boost demand for suitable candidates.

‘‘Over the next couple of months, we will see a renewed focus on regulation and compliance, particularly in the financial services sector.

‘‘There will be opportunities for a good number of legal professionals to focus on these areas. I see an opportunity for the Law Society to run some courses around the new financial services regulations,” he said.

Riordan said the difficulties facing companies operating in a downturn could create opportunities for legal professionals.

‘‘Insolvency and corporate recovery requires legal work,” he said. ‘‘For solicitors, the area of insolvency, unfortunately, is on the up,” he said.

Family law is another relatively busy area, according to Dineen.

‘‘Areas of law that remain consistently busy and essential include family law,” she said.

‘‘People will always be divorcing and separating, and there will always be maintenance issues and concerns in that area. That has remained consistently busy.”

Signs of recovery
Riordan said there were some early signs of a tentative recovery in the legal market.

‘‘We feel there is a bit of a bounce over the last month. Maybe it is because some firms had put recruitment on hold for a while, and could not hold out any longer.

‘‘Maybe it is because there are fantastic candidates and wonderful talent out there, and they have decided to take advantage of it. It could also be that there are fewer recruitment firms as well, but we are definitely busier and we hope it will continue into the summer.”