Demand for lawyers & secretaries remains high despite slowing Eastern States market.
Former Adelaide lawyer Paul Burgess is the leading specialist legal recruiter in Adelaide. He focuses on recruiting lawyers from junior to partner & general counsel levels across Adelaide private practice, in-house and government/NFP’s. After a busy start to 2025 Paul shares his thoughts on the local market.
After a very strong market exiting Covid, and a bullish 2024, it seems that despite a slowdown in recruitment in the Eastern States, Adelaide is performing well. Consultants in both our Melbourne and Sydney offices are reporting a relative slowdown in the market in these cities, as M&A activity remains subdued and the huge engine rooms in the massive national firms are consequently running below capacity. While there are areas which remain strong in those cities (such as energy, construction and employment law) on the whole the market is much calmer and slower moving than we have seen post Covid.
Furthermore, with large corporates in the Eastern States behaving conservatively with their in-house hiring, and with no lawyers being vacuumed up and sent to the UK, where the market is very quiet, there is less inherent demand in these cities. That said, we are coming off a huge period of demand across Australia, so while the market has stepped back quite a bit, there is still reasonable demand and plenty of vacancies that are hard to fill. On balance, it is still an employee’s market, particularly for good commercial, property or construction lawyers, employment lawyers and those with good private client experience. The demand spike is, as always, at the 4-7 year level, with these level lawyers able to contribute to firms and in-house teams cost effectively and with some autonomy. Vacancies are also being created as lawyers leave the profession or move in-house to enjoy a more commercially focused career.
Unlike Melbourne and Sydney, Adelaide remains pretty strong, and while there are signs of some cautious hiring, the market hasn’t yet stepped back. Less affected by a slowdown in massive M&A deals, and benefitting from both a surge in renewables and defence, Adelaide is performing well. While Adelaide also must contend with the usual attrition out of law, and from private practice into in-house, there is also a recommenced trickle of lawyers heading east seeking greater opportunities and higher packages, contributing to the solid demand for lawyers in the local market. Areas such as construction, property, projects, corporate, insurance, IP/IT, private client/family, insurance and employment are all strong, with a number of vacancies on the market and firms and in-house employers competing for lawyers.
Interestingly, local in-house teams have been feeling the pinch when hiring, some of them for the first time in memory, with law firms doing better to retain lawyers. Over a period of years many law firms have re-defined what it means to work in a practice, offering benefits such as increased flexibility, work from home, stronger salaries and bonus schemes, and learning and development. Perhaps led by some of the national firms, Adelaide firms have moved more quickly than their corporate counterparts, adapting to a changing environment and new breed of younger employee. In turn this has eroded what was in the past a fairly significant gap between employee satisfaction within law firms and in-house.
There is also a suggestion that the Adelaide market sometimes follows the Eastern States by 6 months or so. While this might apply to real estate, I’m not personally convinced that it will apply to demand for lawyers here. I just don’t see the same fundamentals in the legal market and the workflows and shortages in both professional and support staff.
As the economy and each of us finds the cost of living noticeably higher, both employers and employees are finding that they have increased costs and have to do more with less. In part, I suspect that what will happen with salaries might depend a lot on what happens in the economy. Presuming Trump doesn’t destabilise the world economy, the word on the street in Melbourne and Sydney is to expect more M&A activity, lower interest rates, and an improving economy. And when that happens demand for lawyers increases, the large teams in the biggest firms hunger for lawyers, and lawyers are vacuumed up from smaller firms, Adelaide firms and the market heats up. I don’t see that as being a guaranteed outcome though – the current state of the market interstate means that before demand can increase significantly we need to see fundamental economic growth, followed by an increase in demand which can’t be satiated and then we see the demand spike in real terms for lawyers. If that happens then of course Adelaide lawyers in front end and transactional areas will be swept up in it to some degree, but it won’t play much of a factor in areas which are relatively unaffected by the economy, such as private clients, family, injuries and insurance and possibly employment law.
So, what does the mean for salaries in Adelaide? At a seminar we gave for SA Young Lawyers Last year my view was that we would see restrained growth for salaries in 2024. As it turned out then, I was pessimistic and a touch cautious! National firms continue to lead the way on salaries, and strong up-market boutique firms are competing hard with them to keep up, and as a result lawyers moving laterally achieved good increases in salary, while those who stayed put were pretty well looked after. It’s always tricky to predict the months or years ahead, but for this year I see more of the same: reasonably strong appetite from local employers looking to hire and retain quality lawyers and therefore local lawyers can expect a decent year for salaries. Employers will no doubt be looking to rein in spending generally and with plenty of other rising costs to deal with should be motivated to keep a lid on wages. Sounds like an interesting year ahead!
If you are a lawyer looking for career advice or considering making a move, or an employer looking to hire, contact Paul Burgess on 0414 687 629 or [email protected]