Legal hiring picks up

Earlier this month we reported that legal employment finally took a turn for the better in April. Will the news again be good when the May jobs numbers come out next week? Based on various reports in the past week that point to greater opportunities for lawyers, we'd argue that the upward trend might continue.

Am Law Daily sibling publication The National Law Journal reported on Tuesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has multiple attorney openings, and has turned to a headhunter, Futurestep, to help fill the jobs. The NLJ notes that turning to outside help to manage the hiring process is less common for federal agencies than for private law firms. But given the number of openings, the job of filling them is a big one.

Overall, the SEC will soon be hiring anywhere from entry-level attorney advisers to division chief counsel positions. The agency has seen an increase in work since the Dodd-Frank Act went into effect last July, and is looking to put to use a $70 million funding injection earmarked for new talent that must be used before the end of the fiscal year, according to the NLJ.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Business Journal reported on Friday that many Texas firms are looking to expand their ranks by adding new partners, associates, summer interns, and support staff.

Among those firms is Hunton & Williams. The firm's administrative partner in Dallas, Curtis Carlson, told the DBJ that Hunton plans to add as many as 30 lawyers in Dallas over the next two years, which would bring the total attorney headcount in the office closer to pre-recession levels. (According to the latest NLJ 250 ranking of the largest law firms by headcount, Hunton's Dallas office has 95 attorneys--it's the firm's third-largest office.)

Legal hiring bosts also can be found north of the U.S. border, as Canadian publication The Lawyers Weekly reports. The improved employment numbers for the legal profession in the U.S. should carry over to Canada, the report notes. Lawyers Weekly spoke to Warren Bongard, of ZSA Legal Recruitment in Toronto, who said that the last six months in particular have seen a flurry of hiring activity. John Ohnjec, of Robert Half Legal, told the publication that the field is finally seeing growth after two or three tight years.

According to Lawyers Weekly, hiring statistics in Canada are difficult to track down, so U.S. numbers help drive speculation. The publication cites a recent Robert Half Legal Hiring Index as being among the reasons for U.S. and Canadian lawyers alike to be optimistic. The index predicts that U.S. legal hiring will remain strong in this year's second quarter as 29 percent of lawyers interviewed said they would add staff in the next three months and none planned job cuts.

(Published by The Am Law Daily - May 25, 2011)