The October-December Hays Quarterly Report, released today (October 13), confirms that demand for candidates in the legal sector in Australia has increased.

According to the findings, the main target areas for recruitment in the legal sector are in-house legal positions and banking & finance lawyers with top-tier experience. Demand also remains high for employment lawyers due to changes in legislation, and IT/technology lawyers are in increasingly in demand as employers prepare for legislative changes associated with the National Broadband Network (NBN).

“Australia’s job market is very healthy as businesses ramp up their hiring activity,” said Hays director, Nick Deligiannis. “Activity in many sectors is now back to the levels we saw just prior to the global financial crisis hitting Australia.”

According to Hays, demand for commercial and corporate lawyers has increased steadily throughout 2010 in private-practice, government and in-house sectors. Candidates with skills in public and private M&A and equity capital markets will continue to be in high demand. In the banking & financial services sector demand has risen as banks feed more work projects work, particularly in the resources states of Queensland and Western Australia.

The speed at which a candidate is hired has quickened with more demand in the market, according to the report. In-house and private-practice employers are making recruitment decisions quickly once a suitable candidate is identified, even for senior appointments.

The report also notes a change in the salary structure within private practice in recent months: more firms are introducing incentive schemes to reward good performers without over-committing on base salaries. Employers have also started to recognise the need for better internal profiling of opportunities for prospective candidates, as part of the recruitment process. 

Firms are also increasingly considering overseas and interstate candidates; and sponsorships have again become a more palatable option for larger firms in certain practice areas, such as banking & finance and corporate where more cross-border deals are now being completed.

As confidence returns to the recruitment market, Hays expects to see an increase in the number of in-house vacancies. Within private practice, recruitment activity is expected to remain at present levels.

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