Public-sector rise

Business is picking up for public-sector lawyers, according to recruiters. Badenoch & Clark’s latest recruitment update notes that planning and property hires are on the rise, with employers turning to non-qualified, junior staff to ease the pressure on legal teams.

In the West Midlands, there is rising demand for short-term locums in the field of community services law, while personal injury and family law firms are looking for candidates with good client portfolios. In northern England, there has been a rise in lateral hires at partner level as firms diversify into more niche practice areas, such as intellectual property and IT. However, hiring among City firms is “subdued” across most practice areas, including corporate and banking.

Duncan Ward, legal operations director at Badenoch & Clark, says: “We anticipate that this will slow down even further over the next six months, particularly in transactional law.”