By Daniela Aroche

The recovering economy and the resulting rise in job advertisements are slowly but surely putting the power back into the hands of candidates and - with a wave of new opportunities emerging and firms eager to retain their top talent - lawyers rather than firms may now be in a better position to call the shots.

Lawyer / Solicitor / Barrister / Compliance Officer jobs advertised - comparison Q2 2008 and Q4 2009

Source:  Robert Walters Asia Job Index

According to Ricky Mui, manager of the legal division at Robert Walters, lawyers currently working at firms can expect conditions such as pay, working hours and flexibility to improve as firms begin to bring stronger retention strategies into play.

"Law firms are working hard to dissuade good staff from moving to other better paying law firms or to in-house roles for a better work/life balance. With salary freezes lifted most of the firms have had to re-align salaries with competitive market rates and also review the longer term career plans of their lawyers to avoid losing valued staff."

Mui's insights are backed by a recent survey by Robert Walters which clearly identifies a rise in job advertisements in the Asia legal sector over the last quarter of 2009 and suggests that hiring expectations are increasing across Asia as the economy continues its recovery.

According to the study, after a significant increase in the third quarter of 2009 of over 20%, the resulting number of job advertisements placed in Asia continued to rise in Q4, and although the Christmas period did impact on December numbers in both Hong Kong and Singapore, the level of advertising has continued the upward trend which started to become apparent in Q2 of 2009 and is now comfortably exceeding levels seen at the end of 2008.