Law firms near-record hiring of graduates
Despite a slowing legal market, law firms have maintained near-record graduate hiring levels this year, as a competitive labour market and a positive long-term outlook drive recruitment.
In the year to July, the 46 firms that provided graduate data for the Australian Financial Review Law Partnership Survey reported employing 1516 entry-level lawyers in 2022-23, up 1.1 per cent on last year’s adjusted figure.
Cecilia Yang moved from New Zealand to take up a graduate role with King & Wood Mallesons. Oscar Colman
Among the big six, only Clayton Utz reduced their graduate intake, with a cohort of 68 this year, down from 78 the year prior and 89 in 2020.
Herbert Smith Freehills and King & Wood Mallesons employed 10.8 per cent and 12.5 per cent more graduates this year respectively, while Allens, MinterEllison and Ashurst reduced or steadied intakes after hiring blitzes last year.
Renae Lattey, chief executive partner at King & Wood Mallesons, told The Australian Financial Review that, while the legal market “is facing a number of challenges with slower global growth,” the firm has maintained graduate hiring levels “with an eye to the future and being in a strong position to capitalise when the economy strengthens again”.
Likewise, Herbert Smith Freehills’ graduate recruitment manager James Keane said that “market conditions aren’t the only factor driving the size of our graduate intake,” with competition for talent remaining strong amid a broader softening of the labour market.
As the boom times of COVID come to an end, firms are looking to the skills and resilience new graduates gained during the pandemic to take them through an uncertain period.
Cecilia Yang gave up a graduate position at a New Zealand-based law firm to
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