Following from this weeks earlier posts profiling across the board reductions in vacation clerk intakes and graduate recruitment, we will today publish comments from several major firms accompanying the AFR article.
From Mallesons:
Mallesons Stephen Jaques head of resourcing, remuneration and benefits, Rebecca Perry, says it is too early to forecast when recruitment levels may return to those reached before the downturn, but “all Australian firms are facing difficult decisions around clerk and graduate numbers… We will use the same approach we have in previous years, drawing on our forecast business needs and loocking at the economic environment to determine our resourcing requirements.
At Freehills:
Freehills‘ Gavin Bell says the clerkship process offers a vital pipeline of graduates “but it is important in doing this that we maintain the flexibility to deal with unpredictable fluctuations year to year’.
With intense ‘focus’, our friends at Blake Dawson:
Blake Dawson Deputy Managing Partner Helen McKenzie expects the firm will cut its graduate intake by 20% in 2011, driven by a “combination of a perceived reduced demand for legal services across the market and to ensure that all people who come on have a good flow of quality work’.
And from our ‘tin-rattling’ pals at Corrs:
Corrs Chambers Wesgarth national partner Chris Pagent says things are likely to tighten across the industry, “we will see a reduction this year in the number of clerks and full time and part time graduates who are taken on… whether that flows through into 2011 is a matter for speculation at this stage.’
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