The first quarter of FY18 saw an overall jump in the number of corporate legal jobs advertised, with 480 jobs listed in July-September 2017, compared to April-June 2017.
The big winners were corporate/ commercial/ M&A, property, insurance and intellectual property. Other sectors were also up, including technology and media law, dispute resolution, employment and in-house roles. The only areas to see a slump were personal injury and insolvency and tax law.
The end of the financial year saw steady figures in banking and finance, litigation and family law, according to the Elias Legal Jobs Index.
Robust jobs growth across all major practice areas
Demand for corporate/ M&A and commercial roles saw a sharp rise of 148%. Property law followed, with a 43% increase in property roles advertised. Insurance also experienced robust growth, with jobs up 64% over the two quarters. Intellectual property and trademarks roles rose by 50%, with technology and media law rising by 36%. Employment law roles rose by 80%.
The only areas of practice to see fewer roles advertised were personal injury, dipping by 55%, and insolvency and tax, which also declined.
The full picture
See the table below for a complete breakdown of where each vacancy was across Q4 2017 and Q1 2018:
| Area | Q4 2017 |
Q1 2018 |
% change | Q1 2018 SYD |
| Corporate/ Commercial/ M&A | 64 | 158 | 146% | 43 |
| Property | 37 | 53 | 43% | 23 |
| Banking/ Finance | 31 | 31 | 3% | 20 |
| Litigation | 33 | 33 | 0% | 24 |
| Insurance | 17 | 28 | 65% | 21 |
| IP/ Trademarks | 6 | 9 | 50% | 7 |
| Tech/ Media | 11 | 15 | 36% | 7 |
| Personal Injury | 14 | 9 | 36% | 3 |
| Dispute Resolution | 8 | 11 | 37% | 9 |
| Employment | 10 | 18 | 80% | 8 |
| In-house/ Big 4 | 12 | 15 | 25% | 10 |
| Family | 4 | 4 | 0% | 3 |
| Insolvency/ Tax | 7 | 11 | 57% | 6 |
| Competition/ Compliance | 12 | 10 | 16% | 6 |
| Franchising | 2 | 1 | 50% | 0 |
| Energy | 2 | 1 | 50% | 0 |
| Pro-bono | 1 | 2 | 100% | 1 |
| Criminal | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0 |
Jason Elias runs Elias Recruitment, a boutique legal recruitment consultancy that specialises in finding lawyers for law firms, NFPs and corporate in-house teams. For more information, email jason [at] eliasrecruitment.com