The Village de la Justice editorial team asked Christian Lamy, a seasoned expert in legal recruitment, to give us some perspective on the changes the legal world is undergoing in terms of recruitment…
« When I started my career in legal and tax recruitment 25 years ago, I remember that everything was easy. The legal profession was on a roll. We were witnessing a new ‘industrial revolution’ in the legal profession. Companies as a whole were beginning to really understand the benefits of having an in-house legal and tax team. Legal departments were emerging from the shadows and their position within companies was steadily improving. In house Legal Counsels, in particular, could take satisfaction in seeing their profession finally valued or at least considered.
At the time, there were a large number of vacancies. Legal temping was booming (even if it was badly perceived and highly devalued) and we had no trouble finding applicants (already in post or immediately available) and matching them to all types of vacancies (fixed-term, permanent, temping).
Everything was easy, or so I thought? Almost, because in 1998, CVs were still sent by fax and the internet was running on a 56K modem.
Then a series of events followed, such as the bursting of the Internet bubble and the subprime crisis.
At the same time, we witnessed the emergence and deployment of compliance programs in France and the beginnings of the “Grand Paris” project (around 2016).
For decades, publicists were the sickly children of the legal world. There were a huge number of profiles available, with salaries well below market levels. Then, all of a sudden, demand exploded. A huge number of private and public companies and local authorities started recruiting legal counsels specialising in public procurement on a massive scale.
Today, it is extremely complicated to find and recruit a legal counsel (even one with 2/3 years’ experience) with a minimum of skills in public procurement. They are in great demand (regardless of their seniority) and the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have not helped matters.
In recent years, the legal and tax professions have become increasingly important as a result of the fact that ALL sectors of activity are increasingly regulated.
Add to that a pinch of the Sapin II law (2017), a zest of the GDPR (2018), sprinkle it all with Covid-19 and you have a major shortage of applicants in many skill areas. This situation has happened very rarely in the past.
The health crisis has created so many problems between customers and suppliers (sudden termination of contracts, insolvency proceedings, contract renegotiations, litigation, etc.) that even companies that continued to outsource their legal files to law firms have been forced to ‘staff up’ and recruit a legal manager/director or a single legal counsel or a team.
Covid-19 has certainly changed attitudes and opened up some people’s chakras, but it has also brought new legal, tax and technological challenges: teleworking (employment law/HR) and the geographical mobility of employees, ‘full remote’ in certain sectors such as tech/the emergence of new internal organisation methods, the digitalisation of legal services (electronic signature, dematerialisation, etc.), legal ops, etc.
As Socrates so rightly said, “what makes a man, or a woman is their great adaptability” or Sebastiao Salgado: “the true intelligence of human beings is their capacity to adapt. Men and women can adapt to anything, including the worst”.
Because there are still many structures in France that are unable, unwilling or unable to adapt (some still think they are in a strong position on the job market). Many companies are still finding it hard to manage change, to challenge a model that dates back to another era.
And it’s not just about teleworking. We’re talking about the ability to offer salaries that are in line with the market, companies that have real human values and that don’t use their CSR policy as a marketing campaign or to revamp their employer brand. Applicants are also looking for flexibility in the way they organise their work, trust from their manager, recognition, mutual respect (no more tyrannical or toxic profiles), the chance to develop personally, and the right to disagree with management on certain issues/decisions relating to the business.
Mind you, there are many companies that have understood the need to offer something new to potential applicants, but these are generally large groups or companies that have agreed (or are able) to allocate resources and budgets to do so. Unfortunately, this only represents a minority.
I would also like to take this opportunity to come back to the subject of teleworking. In my opinion, teleworking was beneficial during the health crisis, but today some people see it as a form of alienation. Some say loud and clear that employees don’t want it anymore and that they’d rather come and work in the office. This is true, but not for everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t be so definitive!
Adapt, allow choice (where possible). From experience, I can tell you that for the average person (myself included), a single day of teleworking a week is not enough and many applicants drop out of a recruitment process for this reason.
In short, it’s getting harder and harder to recruit. There is a real shortage of applicants. On the other hand, there are a lot of senior profiles available on the market. Let’s digress for a moment: during the health crisis, companies realised that, in the event of a hard blow or otherwise, it was a good idea to recruit senior profiles so that they could bring their professional experience to bear, particularly in crisis management. It has to be said that since the ‘return to normality’, discrimination against seniors is in full swing and the post-crisis level has been reached once again.
There are fewer and fewer profiles in active search (with the exception, therefore, of seniors), and applicants are in great demand, so if companies and law firms stick to their guns and remain rigid, it won’t work.
Adapting, being open, offering solutions, fair remuneration and challenging yourself are the keys to success if you don’t want to end up in the creek without a paddle.
In the end, it’s just logic and common sense ».
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