Joseph Craig
According to a specialist career recruitment firm, construction lawyers, finance lawyers and corporate lawyers are expected to benefit from a salary increase this year. Lawyers who are more experienced will benefit more because there will be demand for highly experienced lawyers in Australia for the next four to seven years. “We expect to see a steady demand for highly-qualified lawyers with more than six years experience in the field,” said Henry Smith, who happens to be associate director of banking and legal matters at The Robert Walters in Sydney.
Some of the areas that are considered to be in high demand include construction, finance, and corporate law, as reported by a recent global salary survey by The Robert Walters. The survey also indicated that salary increase will be moderate across all legal sectors in Australia. “During 2015, the legal industry saw salaries for experienced lawyers increase between three and six percent,” said Henry Smith while speaking with Aussie Lawyer Blog. In addition, some lawyers who made an extra effort to extend their services in numerous core sectors were lucky to see an improvement of up to 20 per cent. “As a matter of fact, the increase in regulatory change acts as one of the key factors that drive demand in the Australian legal industry,” said Mr. Smith.
On the other hand, there has been a massive increase in private practice roles and great improvement in hiring across all sectors in the Australian legal field. The trend is expected to continue in 2016 as the demand continues to increase daily. Just a quick note, there has been high demand for experienced mid-level finance lawyers in Australia due to steep improvement in regulatory changes across the country’s financial institutions.
According to the survey, other important factors driving demand in the legal industry include increased private and public investment in large infrastructure projects, increased levels of international and local M&A activity. Skilled lawyers in Australia often have an upper hand and always have the authority to choose their next role based on a good salary offer, development opportunities, career progression, work/life balance, and company culture.
