Latest news with #NikiaGray
Reuters
26-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US law firm lateral hiring ramped up in 2024 following two-year slump, report shows
March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. law firm lateral hiring was up 14% in 2024 after two years of declines, according to data, opens new tab released Wednesday by the National Association for Law Placement. Much of the lateral growth reported by NALP, which tracked non-entry level attorney hires at firms, was fueled by lateral associate hiring, which increased 25% over 2023. Lateral partner hiring, generally less volatile than associate hiring, was up by 2% in 2024. The vibrant lateral market last year came as law firms enjoyed a profitable 2024, buoyed by strong demand across practice areas and higher billing rates, according to the Thomson Reuters Institute, which shares a parent company with Reuters. Corporate practices rebounded in 2024 after several slow years while litigation remained strong, the institute found. The lateral market has seen dramatic swings since the COVID-19 pandemic, NALP executive director Nikia Gray said. Lateral hiring surged 111% in 2021, fueled by a post-pandemic M&A boom. But large firms pulled back in both 2022 and 2023, which had the lowest median and average number of lateral hires since 2010. U.S.-based firms hired nearly 4,300 lateral lawyers across 434 offices in 2024, NALP data shows. The majority of those offices are in firms with 1,000 or more lawyers. The median number of lateral hires was four, while the average was almost 10. The NALP report does provide information on firm-specific hires. Hiring patterns shifted in 2024 by firm size, NALP found. While firms with 250 or fewer lawyers were more aggressive with lateral hiring in both 2022 and 2023, their number of 2024 lateral hires declined 11%. Meanwhile, lateral hiring increased 21% among firms of 1,001 or more lawyers last year. Lateral hiring also varied by city in 2024. Overall hiring was up last year, but Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville and Seattle were among the markets that saw a decline in lateral hires. NALP gathered information on remote hiring policies and found that slightly more than half of firm offices (51%) have policies against hiring fully remote laterals. Lateral hiring at law firms hits lowest level since 2010, NALP report finds U.S. lawyers swapped firms at record pace in 2021, report finds
Reuters
11-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US law firms chopped summer associate jobs to record low and recruited earlier than ever, report shows
March 11 (Reuters) - Law firm summer associate hiring hit an all-time low in 2024, as firms took a "conservative" recruiting approach, according to the National Association for Law Placement. The total number of summer associate offers was down slightly compared with the 11-year low of 2023, while the median number of summer associate offers per law firm office fell to six in 2024 from seven in 2023 — the lowest since NALP began tracking that figure in 1993. The average number of summer associate offers, which law firms made to second-year law students, held steady at 22. The number of summer associate offers tracked by NALP indicates that the hiring market has not rebounded from last year's slump. U.S. law firms have focused their recent hiring efforts on experienced laterals and reduced their summer associate and associate hiring amid uncertain demand and declining lawyer productivity, a January report from the Thomson Reuters Institute found. The institute shares a parent company with Reuters. Additionally, firms are still adjusting to a hiring surge in 2021 and 2022, fueled by a spike in demand for legal services as the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane, that left them overstaffed, said NALP executive director Nikia Gray. The lower summer associate hiring comes at a time when law firm profits are strong but client demand is slowing. The new NALP figures, which focus on hiring practices at more than 180 law firms, also show that traditional on-campus interviews are no longer the primary vehicle for summer associate hiring and that law firms are locking down those hires earlier than ever to compete for the best recruits. More than half of this year's incoming summer associates (56%) received their offers outside of law schools' formal recruiting events, through either direct recruiting, referrals or resume collections. That's up from 47% in 2023. This year, only 24% of summer associate offers came through on-campus interviews conducted in mid- to late summer. Another 20% of offers were extended through early interview programs, which are a relatively new type of recruiting event put on by law schools in spring or early summer to get students in front of law firms prior to OCIs. The new data offers further evidence that summer associate hiring is earlier and more decentralized than ever. The shift to online interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic made it easier for law firms to connect with students outside of formal interviewing programs, the report notes. Previously, law firms would come to law school campuses in late July and August for in-person interviews. NALP also did away with its voluntary recruiting guidelines in 2018, giving law firms more flexibility in how they hire law students. Shifting to earlier recruiting "has proven necessary in order to continue to secure top talent," said Erika Gardiner, McDermott Will & Emery's director of talent acquisition for law students and associates.
