Assistant Director for Professional Development
It's helpful to periodically review overall trends in the legal job market to determine how these may or may not affect your job search or current legal position. The information below was provided by Robert Denney who provides management, marketing and strategic planning consulting to legal professionals. The data provides a national perspective on what's been hot or not job wise in the first-half of this year.
- What's Hot: Intellectual Property Litigation (fueled in part by the Obama administration taking aim at "patent trolls"); Health Care; Energy; Regulatory, especially cybersecurity and social media; Labor and Employment; and Immigration (whether or not there is any real immigration reform).
- What's Not Hot: Bankruptcy; Commercial Litigation (except for "bet the company" suits which are a small segment); IPOs (however the global market may heat up later this year); and Securities Fraud since the SEC is filing significantly fewer cases.
- Geographic Hot Spot: Houston, Texas, since energy, health care and technology industries are located there.
- Hot Size: Small to mid-size law firms continue to benefit at the expense of larger firms since their billing rates are considerably lower and there are fewer, if any, conflicts of interest. Small to mid-sized firms are focusing more on specific practice areas, industries and geographic markets rather than being all things to all people.
- Hot Trends: EDiscovery project management positions; "No-Frill" Legal Services continues to grow - for example, clients learn online all the steps necessary to obtain a divorce rather than using an attorney (similar to what Nolo Press self-help books provide); Litigation Funding - a new wave of investors are funding law suits in hopes of collecting portions of judgments when verdicts come down, with some firms actively seeking funding arrangements for clients who need help to carry their suits.
