Shock survey: more junior lawyers needed
20 July 2012
A new survey from international recruiter Michael Page has provided a bullish forecast  for the Australian legal market, suggesting that the shortfall in junior lawyers over the past few years will soon be plugged by more extensive graduate recruitment.

The financial downturn naturally led to major cut backs in graduate recruitment, with firms taking on far fewer lawyers than during boom times. And of course when the economy starts to pick up, there's a shortage of juniors to do the long hours of due diligence and photocopying. Imagine - partners having to do their own bundling.

Happy results from a scientific study

Lawyers Weekly reports that the strongest demand is expected to be for lawyers with between two and five years of experience. A spokesman for Michael Page said "firms are starting to see some gaps... so things will improve for grads with a strong legal degree. Firms are currently prioritising the development of grads into quality lawyers in the next one to two years to fill this gap". Fingers crossed.