2011 is well underway and hiring activity among both sides of legal practice has picked up pace. While private practice and in-house job vacancies both increased during February, the biggest rise by far was across in-house positions available, according to figures from www.legaljobscentre.com. The number of in-house roles advertised rose by nearly 10% between mid-December and mid-January before jumping a further 38% during the month of February.   “An increase in the number of in-house roles being advertised is to be expected,” said George Walmsley of ALB Legal Jobs Centre. “Many MNCs are looking to bolster their in-house teams within the region as they find themselves increasingly busy with work related to the healthy M&A and capital markets scene as well as an ever more demanding compliance and regulatory workload.”

The great majority of In-house roles are available in both Hong Kong and Singapore, mainly within the banking & finance and corporate sectors. Other sectors that showed a large number of in-house roles available included commercial, compliance and capital markets. There were fewer roles in the information technology and regulatory categories. 

Looking at the jobs advertised across private practice and in-house, the news was also positive for lawyers wanting to stay with the firm. The largest number of new vacancies overall were in the corporate private practice sector. In addition, the number of candidates posting cv’s on-line has risen 30% since October 2010 and continues to rise. The number of visitors to the site has also risen by 70% in the same time period, which was to be expected in February as many lawyers or corporate counsel receive their bonuses and decide to move on, or decide to find a new job in the new year.