Legally Speaking - Legal Recruiter Blog

Job #5074-MH1054
Job Title: Tax Associate
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

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Mid - Level Tax Associate

Dynamic top-tier firm seeks a mid-level tax associate with experience in the design, implementation, and administration of qualified and non-qualified employee benefit plans; including, but not limited to pension, 401(k), cash balance, non-qualified deferred compensation, tax-sheltered annuity, cafeteria, long-term disability, and severance plans.  The ideal candidate has a minimum of 5 years of law firm or equivalent experience in design, administration, and compliance work with respect to said plans.  Required experience includes but is not limited to working with benefit plans in regard to corporate transactions, fiduciary governance issues, plan terminations, and dispute resolution. 

Job #5072-MH1054
Job Title: Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Associate
Location: Philadelphia, PA

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Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Associate

Premier law firm seeks highly skilled, mid-level Benefits associate for its Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group. All interested candidates should have a minimum of 2 years’ employee benefits experience at a large law firm, consulting firm or governmental agency.

Job #5072-MH1054
Job Title: Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Associate
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Click here to apply

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Associate

Premier law firm seeks highly skilled, mid-level Benefits associate for its Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group. All interested candidates should have a minimum of 2 years’ employee benefits experience at a large law firm, consulting firm or governmental agency.

Job #5032-MH1054
Job Title: Lateral Associates
Location: Washington, DC

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Lateral Associates

DC-based law firm with well-established practice in a broad range of areas seeks experienced attorneys with excellent academic credentials and strong writing skills.

Job #5031-MH1054
Job Title: Health Care Litigation
Location: Voorhees, NJ

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Junior to Mid Level Health Care Litigation  Associate

Health Care Group provides hospitals, nursing homes, retirement communities, health systems, surgical centers, physician practice groups, medical schools, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with well-rounded representation in both traditional and innovative business transactions, litigation, and health care regulatory issues.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that law firms plan on hiring fewer associates next year.

In Washington D.C., twenty two of the thirty largest law firms plan on bringing on fewer associates in 2008 than they did in 2007. Some will decrease hiring by only two or three attorneys, while others will cut hiring by as much as thirty percent. Collectively the firms that provided figures for a recent survey say that their associate hires will drop by five percent.

As the economy has faltered, workload has decreased, especially transactional work. With many lawyers afraid to risk a job change in a fluctuating job market, attrition is down. Firms are will be cautious in their hiring practices until the nature of the economic downturn becomes clear.

Lateral movement does remain strong, however, at the partner level. There is as much, if not more, demand at the partner level. Whenever news breaks that a particular firm may be having difficulties, recruiters start receiving calls from firms interested in recruiting partners who may be looking to escape a sinking ship.

While firms in many other cities are laying off lawyers, large law firms in Chicago are facing a talent shortage.

From The National Law Journal:

“National law firms have rushed into Chicago during the past decade, especially in the past three years, but many are finding now that their collective arrival is fueling intense competition to fill those offices with lawyers.”

Since the 1980s about 75 national firms have opened offices in Chicago, all looking for lawyers with $1 million plus in portable business.  Thirty to fifty lawyers are considered necessary to justify the cost of the office and most firms aim for offices of at least 100 lawyers. 

Firms that have been in Chicago for years are still eager to grab up experienced lawyers and new firms with their own hiring needs keep moving in.

“Leaders at many of the firms that have been in the city for years say they are still eager to snap up experienced lawyers or groups of attorneys to build the Chicago offices to their optimal size. Meanwhile, more firms keep flowing in, including the arrival earlier this year of Boston’s Ropes & Gray, New York’s Proskauer Rose and Indianapolis’ Baker & Daniels.”

Dewey & LeBoeuf opened its Chicago office in 2005 with five attorneys and is now at about 25.  Paul Hastings’ Chicago office, opened in November 2006 with two partners, is at about 38 lawyers now.  Steptoe opened its Chicago office in January 2007 with nine lawyers and now has 13.  Nixon Peabody, which entered the Chicago market in March 2007, now has 19 lawyers.

Not every law firm is suffering from declining revenues, facing layoffs or contemplating mergers to shore up their firms.  At least one is doing it the old fashioned way – adding more lawyers.

Chicago based Arnstein & Lehr is looking to double its Florida attorney headcount and expand its Chicago office from 93 to 120 lawyers.

The firm is looking to increase its Florida force to 90 lawyers from the current 43 in an effort to give all its practice groups a presence in there.  Arnstein & Lehr has offices in Miami, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Chairman Ray Werner says the plan is to hire the attorneys over the next several years so that it has a presence in the state in all of its key practice areas, especially business areas such as bankruptcy and health care.  Werner says the firm isn’t interested in expanding geographically or through a merger.