Legal Business

Recruitment at record levels

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Frank Varela of V&P Global details the changing face of legal recruitment over the last 25 years.

Legal Business is 25 years old and the legal recruitment market has played a significant part in its development and in its revenues. It has provided many of the headlines and inspired some of the stories that have captivated the market over that period.

It seems opportune then to look at how the legal recruitment market itself has fared over that period. There has been a demonstrable surge in recruitment over the last 25 years – certainly more lawyers, more law firms in the market and so more demand for talent than ever before. After a post-2008 lull, the competition for the best talent is so hot that guarantees are ‘back in vogue’.

The market is now full of headhunters, but that certainly wasn’t always the case. When Legal Business first went to the printing press, I was founding Longbridge International, at the time the first executive search boutique dedicated to the legal profession.