Legal hiring should soon see an upswing from a variety of sources, with both in-house efforts from small firms and the number of young workers in big firms to soon increase.
A survey of 70 legal departments found that 59 percent of respondents reported adding new lawyers in the past year, according to ABA Journal. That's an increase of 8 percent from 2012, 15 percent from 2011 and 20 percent from 2010. An additional 21 percent of respondents were planning budget cuts in the next year, which was also a reduction from previous years and points toward the potential for further hiring.
Meanwhile, large firms in major cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C. have recently made turnarounds in their attention, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The employment rate for lawyers in the class of 2012 is reportedly just under 85 percent, having declined for five years straight, but reports of the private legal sector rebounding have been widespread. Hiring figures have also been increasing since the recession, though they have not quite reached highs from before that period began.