25 Feb Private Practice Update
2022 has started off with a bang! As predicted, demand for quality talent was literally felt across all major cities as soon as you had unpacked your holiday bags.
The only consistent theme was the slowness of processes (as you all no doubt know, partners don’t actually like to work in January – FACT!).
While there were a large number of candidates receiving multiple offers in 2021, it certainly feels like 2022 is showing signs of being back to the glory days when you could expect multiple offers, mandatory sign-on bonuses (up to $20k), and bottles of Dom Perignon (actually, that may be a summer clerkship thing, but I am damn sure going to request that for you from now on).
In short, we have more roles than Jodie Foster, Mark Wahlberg, Reece Witherspoon and The Rock have played combined. Plus some.
Not surprisingly, New South Wales remains the busiest state in the country with opportunities across all practice areas and a substantial number of in-house opportunities. We have seen a significant increase in property-related positions, while corporate including M&A (private and public), private equity and/or equity capital markets remain in hot demand; in addition to tax and insurance. There has also been a continuing demand for construction, competition, TMT, employment, finance and litigation lawyers.
As we reported throughout last year, Victoria is going from strength to strength. Law firms and legal teams in-house have briefed us on a range of new positions – most notably in property, construction (particularly front-end), corporate, finance, employment, restructuring and insolvency, employment (including safety) and litigation.
There is a very strong appetite in Queensland for lawyers across most areas of law, particularly with respect to litigation, insurance, property, construction, corporate (typically involving E&R) and employment (most notably, safety-focused). It is common for lawyers to be weighing up multiple offers and seeing sign-on bonuses.
Consistent with the backend of 2021, the recruitment activity in Western Australia continues to build momentum with opportunities for lawyers in corporate, construction, property, employment and litigation. It continues to be a good time for lawyers in other locations to consider a move but beware of the rising housing prices!
