Legal Secretarial Hiring Seasons

Summary: This article describes the legal secretary hiring patterns of law firms in the Boston area, though the information provided is relevant throughout the country.

Many legal secretaries may not be aware that law firms experience a reasonably defined annual pattern of legal secretarial hiring seasons.


The hiring seasons are fairly predictable so long as the economy is steady. When the economy is strong, the hiring seasons tend to be more active. When the economy is weak, the hiring seasons tend to be less active. The activity levels of the hiring seasons are typically proportionate to the economic conditions.

The current economic conditions are less than strong, thus the recent hiring seasons have been less active. The reasonably defined annual pattern of legal secretarial hiring has been temporarily thrown off-course. As the economic recovery continues, legal secretarial hiring seasons will likely return to a more predictable level of activity. The pendulum is always in motion.

To simplify the matter, law firms in the Boston area have four basic recruitment seasons for legal secretaries:

1. New Year's/Spring Season: New Year's Day to Memorial Day
2. Summer Season: Memorial Day to Labor Day
3. Fall Season: Labor Day to Thanksgiving Day
4. Holiday Season: Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day

New Year's/Spring Season

This is the longest period of time during each year that law firms regularly search for legal secretaries. During this season, there tends to be a steady flow of direct hire legal secretarial openings available. This is based partly on the desire of legal secretaries to identify new positions resulting in a "musical chairs" scenario. Many legal secretaries that have considered making a change of employment have put their searches on-hold until after the holidays, and may have "cabin-fever." Then, once the new year has commenced, legal secretaries are ready to interview.

Another contributing factor to the steady level of legal secretarial recruitment during this time period involves the new allocation of staffing budgets and the execution of staffing strategies on behalf of law firms. Additionally, there are few major holidays during the first half of the calendar year, so law firms tend to be more readily available to meet legal secretarial job applicants, and are less likely to delay the recruitment process.

Summer Season

Summer has traditionally been a moderately active time of year for the recruitment of legal secretaries. People tend to take their longest vacations during this time of year, and there is an influx of seasonal employees available to perform temporary assignments. Thus, law firms do not find themselves in as urgent a position to recruit legal secretaries on a regular basis. However, when an important need presents itself, law firms tend to move quickly.

Interviewing for a position during the summer season has certain benefits that may not be found during other times of the year. For example, a legal secretary interviewing for a job during the summer season will find that there are actually fewer legal secretarial applicants to compete against. This factor alone could improve the odds of a legal secretary identifying a wonderful new position.

Fall Season

Fall is absolutely the most active period of time for law firms to recruit legal secretaries. Once law firm employees have returned from summer vacations and summer temps assignments have ended, larger law firms begin their annual fall hiring campaigns. During the summer season, many human resource professionals of law firms devote a considerable amount of their spare time assessing and planning their staffing needs for the fall season.

There are a few other factors that contribute to this annual hiring event. For example, new associates join law firms, while other lawyers are re-assigned and promoted. As a result, law firms are busy forming new teams for the legal secretaries to support.

Holiday Season

The holiday season is recognized as the slowest time of the year for the recruitment of legal secretaries. Once Thanksgiving has arrived, and the December holidays are just weeks away, people have busy calendars. There are lots of family gatherings and office parties, and many people travel home for the holidays.

Despite the conditions, the holiday season may be one of the most opportunistic times to identify a new legal secretarial position. Why? Because while most legal secretaries are busy and remove themselves from new employment consideration, the competition is at the lowest point during the calendar year. That means that, when a nice opportunity presents itself, the odds of getting an offer are dramatically increased.

Typically, law firms employ temporary legal secretaries to cover openings during this time of year. However, many temps also become unavailable due to the holidays. And, when there is an important position that needs to be filled, law firms mobilize their resources to conduct quick searches to satisfy their immediate employment needs.

Conclusion

While there are distinguishable hiring seasons, most Boston area law firms have various legal secretarial job vacancies throughout the year. Of course, the amount and type of legal secretarial employment opportunities are directly related to the size of the law firm, the areas of practice, and of course the local economic factors.

Over the past year, law firms have not followed the typical pattern of hiring seasons due to the economy. However, many notable economic forecasts predict seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the conflicting reports, the economy is in recovery. Many legal recruiters and law firms are predicting an increase of recruitment activity for the Fall Season. This recovery will eventually reestablish the pattern of hiring seasons that law firms have traditionally become accustomed to each calendar year. It is only a matter of time before the opportunities of the future become readily available.

See the following articles for more information:

• When to move to a new Firm
• Tis the Season (For Recruiting)