Job security returns to legal profession

The number of lawyers concerned about their job security has dropped to a 5 year low according to our research.

Just 8% of the legal profession cited job security as the main motivator for changing jobs in 2018, a rate that has been steadily falling from its 5 year peak of 21% at the beginning of 2014.   

As a consequence the number of legal professionals actively looking to change jobs has also shrunk to a 5 year low. 24% of the legal talent pool will be actively looking to change jobs in 2018, down 4 percentage points since 2017 and 17 points from its 5 year peak in January 2015.  

With the number of lawyers non-committal about a move remaining steady over the same period, 48% of the legal profession is planning to stay put in 2018, up from 41% in 2017 and a five year low of 31% in 2015.

Jon-Paul Hanrahan, Associate Director:

“The legal sector took a battering during the recession which was compounded by changes in public funded work and litigation and the liberalisation of the legal services market. It wasn’t until 2015 that most lawyers started to think about getting their careers back on track again. With job security fears subsiding Solicitors and lawyers can focus on making proactive choices about their careers.”     

Ambition is consistently the biggest driver in the legal sector job market and 2018 is no different according to our research with 1 in 4 legal professionals motivated to change jobs to progress their careers. Next best is salary with 1 in 10 citing money as the main reason to move.

We surveyed 3,000 legal professionals to produce our 2018 annual Salary and Benefits Benchmarker, the 6th in the series of legal sector specific big data surveys.  

If you are motivated to change jobs this year then make sure you investigate the legal sector recruitment market thoroughly before making a move. Check out all the latest private practice jobs in regional, national and international law firms and in house legal jobs with within UK commerce and industry.