Robert Half International Inc., a staffing firm, has found that close to one-third of law firms across the country are planning to hire during the fourth quarter. This number is an increase of 25 percent from last year. The survey, the Robert Half Legal Hiring Index, discovered that 32 percent of the lawyers questioned are planning to hire full-time legal professionals. From the same survey, three percent of lawyers said they expect to reduce their staff. The index found that 32 percent were making plans to hire and 2 percent were making plans to cut last quarter.
The division director of Robert Half Legal in Columbus, Jeanne Wafalosky, said that she has come across local law firms that are going to hire full-time workers instead of temporary workers.
“That’s a huge change we’ve seen in Columbus,” Wafalosky said. “People are less gun shy to hire now. The market isn’t as bad as it sounds on the news.” She also provided an estimate that said the percentage of lawyers who plan to hire staff in Columbus is closing in on the national number. She said that “it’s definitely, 100 percent trending up.”
Wafalosky said that health care law should be the practice demanded the most nationally while real estate will be the biggest practice in demand locally. The survey involved 100 lawyers at law firms that had 20 or more employees and 100 lawyers from firms with 1,000 or more employees.