Marketplace Update: Q1 2024

So the most asked question of the year so far is: what is the legal recruitment market looking like for the year ahead?

2023 was an overall quieter year, as the transactional market was dampened, coupled with the 2021 and 2022 frenzy of hiring on the back of the bounce back from Covid. The exception to this was partner recruitment, which saw the highest number of lateral hires – admittedly helped by the 14 partners hired by Paul Weiss, with Kirkland also hiring to make up for their partner losses and the forced moves with the demise of Ince.

• The year has kicked off with a vengeance, particularly at the senior end of the market. We have had a noticeable increase already with firms speaking to us about their plans to hire partners across a range of practice areas (see below for more details);
• There has been an increased number of partners open to move (firms have also been managing their partnerships too, which fuels partner movement;
• Associate roles have picked up too, within transactional areas and litigation as well as other supporting areas too including competition and employment;
• New business support roles are also coming in: areas such as internal recruitment teams were in short supply in 2023, but are picking up, more marketing/BD roles are coming through as firms are investing further to support their growth.

This is by no means a bull market, but with international markets picking up (Europe, the US and the Middle East particularly), there is a feel of cautious optimism for the year ahead.