Anyone with their finger on the pulse of the legal job market will be used to hearing words such as "cutting back" and "slimming down." But some legal recruiters say the news is not nearly as grim as you might assume at the articling student and junior associate end of things.
"What I am seeing over the next 12 to 14 months is rapid growth in terms of the number of jobs," says Gene Roberts, director of Robert Half's legal recruitment division in Toronto. "I think we are going to see job growth of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent, largely driven by litigation and corporate-law practice areas – mergers and acquisitions, corporate securities and areas like that."
While firms are hiring, he says, they are taking a more strategic approach to whom they bring on board, looking beyond academic achievement.
Lexpert contributor Sandra Rubin reports on prospects for law graduates at www.lexpert.ca/globe
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