Legal Information Hiring Trends – With Tim Palmer
Last March, you made some predictions about salaries, graduate hiring, and flexibility for information professionals in law. Have these predictions been accurate?
Salaries:
Last year, I felt that over the course of the year, we would be looking at about £50,000 as the benchmark for hiring an experienced information professional in London. Assuming that person has around 2-3 years of experience. Looking back at the placements made and the salary data we collect, I would say that was close, but perhaps even a little short or conservative. Several factors have influenced this. Many of the roles I supported were very research-heavy, which is a skillset that always costs a bit more, particularly when it involves business research or analysis. Another factor has been the level of hires by US-based firms in the UK; generally speaking, it doesn't seem to matter if the firm is already established or developing a foothold, as they usually manage to offer slightly higher salaries. Finally, it's fair to say that in this sector, there simply isn't a large pool of professionals actively looking to move, and while money isn't always the key factor, quite often firms need to offer more for a candidate to justify making a change. Outside of London, there hasn't been much change in salaries, but this is offset by increased flexibility of hours and/or location offered by many of the regional firms.
LIS Graduate hiring in law:
It's with a heavy heart that I have to say my thoughts around LIS graduate hires in law have certainly come to pass. Until about October last year, we weren't asked to support a single graduate requirement (although I did see some scattered opportunities in the market), but although we've worked on some roles in the past couple of months, there certainly isn't a strong enough pipeline to continue feeding the sector for the future. Additionally, we've also seen a couple of the prominent Library and Information University courses come to an end in September. There is a common perception that it is difficult to hire LIS graduates into law. Because of all the work we do presenting to LIS courses and engaging through professional bodies we are usually very well equipped to help with these requirements. The main challenge is the lack of consistency in the opportunities available at entry level.
Flexible working:
In terms of flexible working for information professionals in law, firms based outside of London are continuing to offer more flexibility to their teams, with many firms offering highly flexible working models. From a recruitment perspective, this has been beneficial and hires that were traditionally quite challenging are probably easier from our perspective than hiring in London, where there is far less flexibility. Just on a side note, there's been a lot of discussion around large corporates seeking to have their teams on site more often, but as yet, that's not something we are seeing in hires. The industry standard in London remains at three days in and two days out.
What were the notable trends in the legal profession over the last 12 months?
For the first time in quite a while, there has been an increase in more senior roles becoming available. However, this isn't without its downsides, which I will address. Very often, the catalyst for this is one or two unexpected changes at the highest level, which can kick off a chain reaction of backfilling requirements, and I certainly think that this has been the case over the past 12 months. A serious challenge presented by this is that because this sector has such unusually long tenures at management level, it's extremely challenging to find a pipeline of candidates who offer some exposure to project management, budget management, supervisory, or line management skills meaning that taking that next step is challenging. For clients we work with this has meant that what we are able to offer in terms of introductions to roles can be a bit limited. That said, I've certainly seen and contributed to some great success stories that have seen candidates progress their career over the past year.
Another interesting trend is the number of requirements within US-based law firms, particularly those with a smaller UK or European presence. I honestly couldn't say if this has been driven by growth or replacements, as the requirements have been a real mix. However we are aware many US firms have been growing their overall footprint. But what is notable is that the split of UK vs US law firm hires is about equal for the first time and the salaries that most US firms are offering are slightly higher.
Is it still a good time to be an Information Professional in legal, and are there any particular skills that will be in greater demand in the next 12 months?
Put bluntly, yes. There aren't enough new entrants to the profession, so if you have between 12 months and 3 years of experience, there will always be demand for your skills, and most likely, a firm will be able to offer you an increase - if money is a key factor.
In terms of skills, looking at the landscape of information professionals, particularly those at the top of information teams, it is an ageing demographic. In the next 2-5 years, I think we may well see departures in the form of retirements or people seeking to wind down their careers, and this will almost certainly cascade down through the sector and produce the need for replacements. I've already addressed this, but opportunities to increase personal responsibility do seem limited within many teams, and I think our profession will need more skills in disciplines such as project management, leadership, supervision, and financial acumen. I think in many cases, people looking to equip themselves with these skills may have to look beyond the workplace. If I were to advise someone in this situation, I'd say volunteering for professional associations such as BIALL, CILIP, CLIG, or SLA might be a very good starting point. Not only does this offer the opportunity to equip yourself with skills that would be helpful in the longer term and make a genuine contribution to the profession, but it also offers considerable visibility within the sector, and improving one's personal brand is never a bad thing! We can think of many real examples of legal information professionals in leadership roles who have been able to draw on experience volunteering with these professional groups that helped them get their first management role.
Finally, what are the likely challenges for hirers this year?
I'll keep this brief! Simply finding candidates that are looking to move will be an ongoing challenge but one we are well equipped to help with. It's a supply vs. demand issue.
Salaries are going to rise again, especially in London. It seems like there is a perfect storm in place to drive this.
Finally, I think firms will need to offer more flexibility to be competitive when hiring. This isn't just about hybrid working; there are a not insignificant number in the profession approaching retirement who tell us they’d eventually like a bit more flexibility or reduced hours whilst carrying on working and applying their professional skills. Firms that will consider limited hours, part-time work, or even job shares are likely to be able to tap into some of the strongest talent available in the market.
There are also big shifts in ways of working coming from new technologies such as generative AI. Most of our clients in law will have some kind of AI tools within their environment and the core skills of information professionals are well placed to help them navigate these new technologies. However while we’ve seen experience with AI come up as a prerequisite for KM and Innovation roles we haven’t seen it come up for information roles yet. Hirers have been more interested in the core information skills but increasingly AI does come into conversation during interviews. Being asked to consider how this might affect information roles in the future, or the potential impact of generative AI in the process of training junior Lawyers seem like particularly hot topics at present. We’d say this is an important time to engage with your peers in the profession to stay up to date with developments in this area.
Many of our clients will be attending KIMRA Conference on the 4th June. Attendees in knowledge & information roles from across law, banking, consulting, private equity and more will be there sharing insights and networking. All these industries compete for talent so it’s a really useful time to benchmark yourself across the wider information industry. https://www.kimraconference.com/