The demand for skilled talent in the legal profession remains high in mid-2024. That means employers must intensify their efforts to hire and retain both long-term and short-term talent if they want to meet their hiring goals in the months ahead.
It helps to know which roles are in highest demand so you can prepare to compete effectively for top candidates — and understand where to amplify retention efforts within your organization.
Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report can equip you with that insight. It highlights the latest data from surveys of hiring managers and our analysis of thousands of job postings to help you make informed hiring and management decisions.
Let’s look at what we learned from our research for the midyear update of our report.
The legal job market saw some bright spots throughout the first half of 2024, according to an analysis of our proprietary dataset of more than 3.5 million U.S. job postings, including 60,000 Robert Half placements. Among the more than 1 million lawyers not self-employed, the annual unemployment rate was very low at just 1.1%, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For legal support roles, demand persisted throughout the first half of the year. Paralegals saw annual unemployment rates as low as 2.0% during this period. Paralegals across all levels of experience remain highly sought after — from junior roles to senior positions demanding over seven years of experience.
Explore our Demand for Skilled Talent report to see what specializations employers need most.
In law firms, teams are focused on several strategic priorities this year, including technology integration and the expansion of practice areas. Meanwhile, for teams in corporate legal departments, the top priorities range from legal optimization and efficiency to AI innovation and governance.
Hiring managers working to help align staff to support these and other initiatives are encountering increased competition for talent, particularly paralegals, attorneys and legal assistants.
Meanwhile, fewer professionals are actively looking for jobs. Robert Half’s research also shows that the Big Stay is in effect, with only 35% of U.S. workers planning to look for a new job in the second half of 2024. That’s down from 49% during the same period last year.
While 91% of hiring managers in the legal industry said they face challenges finding skilled candidates in today’s hiring environment, many aim to recruit talent in the second half of 2024.
Fifty percent of lawyers and managers said they plan to expand their teams and staff both new and vacated positions. In law firms, employee turnover is likely to be the main driver for hiring through the remainder of this year. Meanwhile, legal departments are looking primarily to hire talent for project-based or short-term needs, including new or previously postponed projects now underway.
To help augment their permanent teams, 53% of lawyers and managers plan to increase their use of contract professionals in the second half of 2024, especially for roles in the following areas:
General administrative (e.g., administrative assistant, file clerk) Legal administrative (e.g., legal secretary)Legal research and analysis (e.g., paralegal, legal assistant)Law firm administration (e.g., legal administrator, office manager)Legal specialist (e.g., patent agent, records manager)Litigation support and eDiscovery (e.g., eDiscovery specialist, document coder)
Future-forward measures, such as providing flexible work arrangements and the ability to learn and work with emerging technology like AI, can help companies attract and keep in-demand professionals. So, too, can providing more traditional offerings that many employees value today, such as:
Competitive compensation, including compelling perks and benefitsOpportunities for career advancement and professional developmentPrograms and policies that promote a healthy work-life balance (our workplace research shows one-third of professionals are experiencing high levels of burnout)
Employers may also want to consider engaging resources like specialized recruiters to find the legal talent they need for their law firms or corporate legal departments, including passive job seekers prepared to make a move for the right opportunity and high-potential candidates willing to be trained.
Want more insights? Check out the full midyear update of Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report.
The Demand for Skilled Talent report by Robert Half is an authoritative source providing essential insights into employment trends. This report has offered a deep dive into the U.S. hiring landscape for over a decade, spotlighting challenges and strategies to attract and retain talent. It explores what employees seek in their careers, identifies common recruitment errors and suggests solutions. The report spans finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources, proving crucial for business leaders and managers.
