20 Jul Perth, “to go or not to go?” that is the question
With its borders closed for over three months, some may say WA/Perth is the safest place in Australia to be right now. They have certainly led the way in safeguarding themselves from COVID-19 and are essentially reaping the benefits given they’re happily and freely moving around the state as they please. With zero reported (community transmitted) cases in the past couple of months, they’re in a fantastic position.
Whilst things resume to “business as usual” and lawyers dust off their suits to return to the office, when it comes to recruitment, the legal market in Perth is the quietest it has been in five years. Practice areas like projects, construction and litigation are busy (and have generally remained so over the past few months), however, other areas like transactional banking did slow down, especially with some firms re-deploying lawyers in these teams to other busier practices.
The Outlook
It’s not all doom and gloom, however – far from it actually! Perth has been in a similar position in the past with the decline in the resources sector and it rapidly pulled itself through. Since the turn of the financial year, we are also seeing instructions for transactional roles increasing, and interestingly, we have just completed two placements in the corporate space alone!
So, it then begs the question of lawyers considering a Perth move – “to go or not to go”? Our predictions are for an increase in activity over the course of the next few months, especially within the transactional space. For lawyers keen to return to their home state, or indeed make a strategic career move, we anticipate there being heightened activity in the next two quarters (with roles galore)!
